A Maiden's Voyage
by tinyweevil
Summary: 200 years into the future, Team Galactic and the Society of Pokemon have divided the Sinnoh Region. These two factions have been at war ever since Aria Verne Ketchum, descendant to a renowned pokemon master, was born. Now it's Aria's turn to embark on her own strenuous adventure along with her Rotom. She discovers new people and new pokemon but at many costs in her narration.
1. Chapter 1 - The Voyage Begins

A Maiden's Voyage  
Chapter 1: The Voyage Begins

Not many people actually knew the story of Aria Ketchum, descendant to a renowned Pokemon Master, but today we'll explore the hardships she faced in order to survive in a dystopian pokemon world. Aria grew up in the little town of Twinleaf where her world changed for the worst. Two Hundred years into the future, the Sinnoh Region has changed dramatically and perhaps for the worst and it is this place where an unfortunate heroine had to undergo her worst nightmares. But she loved them. All of them. She and her best friend, Rotom, who identifies as a male, took on the Sinnoh League in a never-before-seen way. It couldn't have been predicted that Aria's birth changed Sinnoh and you as the reader will have to determine that.

Aria Verne Ketchum was too much like your ordinary girl. She went to a public high school in the little town of Twinleaf and had some friends, but not too many. After finishing up school she wanted to work with pokemon and people, too in hopes to pursue a private college not too far away. However, this day is when she became acquainted with some important people and it kick-started her very own pokemon journey.

I woke up to the sound of bacon sizzling and plates clashing as someone picked them up out of a stack. After I stretched my arms and legs in bed and closed my eyes for merely one second, I crawled to the edge and grabbed some clean clothes out of a bin by my door. My father had already done the laundry that morning and was preparing a lovely breakfast for the two of us. Rotom had also begun to snooze and I held a smile for a moment before finally getting up.

My morning routine consisted of brushing my teeth and getting dressed. After putting on some socially acceptable clothes I did a little bit of my make-up before descending down into our aromatic kitchen. Rotom followed me downstairs and took residence above my shoulder as Dad turned to me and handed a plate with neatly arranged bacon slices and a grilled-cheese sandwich.

"You had a lot of time on your hands this morning," I said to him.

"Yeah well I don't have work today so I thought I'd spend it with you, kiddo we could relax and hangout in the Sandgem Beaches."

"I'd like that," I said smiling and lifting a fork Dad handed me. Then I began scarfing down on some bacon. My Dad, Robert, raised the corners of his mouth which folded perfectly into his unique smile. It envelops you like a blanket, holding you until it desires to part and leave you waiting for its next appearance. Dad was middle-aged and worked hard to keep us in our two-story home. He worked as an assistant for Professor Rowan of Sandgem Town before becoming an astrophysicist. He now studies with his colleagues in Jubilife City on deep space exploration but recently due to Galactic threats he started going to work less and less. Robert Ketchum had natural golden-blonde hair and murky blue-eyes. He wore a lavender, long-sleeved and buttoned shirt that were folded to his elbows and looked as if he had outgrown it. His black pants reached to the ground and ended at his dark socks. After saying he had to run a few errands, he parted with the house, leaving Rotom and I to ourselves  
Rotom was one of very few pokemon that learned to adapt to the ways of humans, understanding their mannerisms. He and I share a tight bond between human and ghost unlike any other pairing. We weren't always as close as friends as we are now and it wasn't until I entered the sixth grade that pokemon had officially entered my life.  
I had just come home from school. I walked because Twinleaf Middle school was just down the street from Fawkes Drive, and the door was wide open. I walked in carefully only to see Dad and a colleague of his that I knew bent over the couch with an array of things I could have pointed out from the kitchen, sprawled around the floor around them. Dad noticed me standing in the doorway with uncertainty emanating from his body.  
"Aria, honey, I found a sick pokemon on my way home from work."He pointed with his nose at his friend, Max and the couch where an invisible pokemon lay out of sight. I walked up to the couch, clutching my backpack and screamed as I saw a translucent body lying there not moving.  
"Aria, shh. I promise it won't hurt you, it's just sick."

"Daddy why can I see through it?Is it some kind of demon?" I looked into his young eyes with fear. He wasn't smiling and this troubled me even more than the specter that was in our home.  
"Nothing is working Robert, what should we do?"Max called to them. I noticed he was sweating and had one arm on the back of his head revealing sweat stains on his buttoned shirt. Something was terribly wrong and I didn't know what was happening. Dad had said something to Max about another colleague coming by later who might be able to help the sickly pokemon. I heard a name, "Rowan," but it wasn't until seven years later when I had actually met him.  
"Daddy what's wrong with the scary pokemon?" I looked at my dad worrisome. Then I looked to the yellow and white pokemon on our couch that had two lightning bolt-shaped shoulders for appendages. It was a small body encased in plasma with no definite limbs or features, except for a spike it had on its head. Dad told me that he had seen the pokemon lying face-down on the grass of a field near the laboratory and had asked Max to accompany him to see what happened. It turned out Rotom had recently battled another pokemon and inflicted a massive burn on Rotom.  
"We brought it here and tried, I can't even tell how many medicines to get it back on its feet, er levitation."

Suddenly a strange man appeared at their doorway with a satchel on his left shoulder. Dad and Max welcomed the stranger who introduced himself quickly as Professor Rowan before running over to Rotom, still weakly lying on my couch and pulled out a sprayer. The pokemon shied away from the spray bottle at first, but as soon as Rowan had sprayed the burn, Rotom had felt immediate relief.

"Can you leave one of those here?" My father joked. I had already gone upstairs, and later that evening my father called me down for dinner. Rowan and Max were still downstairs. They were conversing with my father about a matter that I did not understand.  
"Sinnoh isn't going to war, Max."My father assured. I looked at them with puzzled green eyes and looked over at our couch to still find a now healthy Ghost pokemon still in our house. Although, now, it had noticed me and floated weakly over to me as I flinched out of fear.  
"Aria it's okay, love, it's not going to hurt you." Dad said to me as I shut my eyes tight. The pokemon buzzed around me like it enjoyed toying with my greatest fear and Max had also gone over to me and held my hand as he whispered that the pokemon was friendly.  
I peered out of one eye to see the pokemon flying around the living room of my house exploring its new environment away from the dangerous outside world.  
"Daddy, are you keeping it?" I asked nervously. Rowan was looking at me intently the whole time.  
"I don't know, kiddo, it's up to you." I still looked at the pokemon weaving around couches and lamps as it made its way around the kitchen and over the island where my father and Max sat in front of Rowan. Dad and Max were also observing the pokemon, but Rowan was still looking at me, and I had noticed out of the corner of my eye but had said nothing.  
"Have you ever played with a pokemon?" He said suddenly to me. I didn't know what to say. I had never played or touched a pokemon in my life. It wasn't that my dad forbade me from them, I had forbade myself. I had a deep fear of pokemon like they were monsters that didn't belong in our realm of existence. Their presence had left a deep trench in my mind that wouldn't ever fill and this trench bore deep into the reaches of my heart reminding me that everyday there were monsters in the world and I was their target.  
"No." I said to him blankly." They don't really seem like fun."

"Pokemon are more than just fun and games, Aria, they become your best friends throughout your journeys," he stared into me. I took this in quietly and looked up at Rotom who seemed as though it was laughing.

The next morning, I awoke suddenly. It was the last day of school before the the summer began and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I woke up, brushed my teeth and went downstairs in my pajamas. Dad hadn't woken up yet and I was preparing my lunch, when I quickly realized Rotom had infiltrated the fridge and was an entire entity fridge and pokemon. I screamed. Dad ran in and held me tight only to realize that Rotom was not hostile and merely took residence inside of the fridge.  
"Professor Rowan warned about this," my father began."He said Rotom was capable of seizing electrical objects and manifesting itself within them."At this point Rotom inside of the fridge was bouncing up on and down ecstatically as my father shook his head, laughing. I laughed, too.  
"I need to make my lunch," I whined. Rotom, as if it understood my English perfectly, removed itself from the universe that was my fridge and floated tenderly in the air. After I had constructed a lunch for the last day of school, my Dad walked me to school. Rotom was left alone in our house.

"What if that pokemon runs away?"I asked my Dad. He looked down at me and smiled his enveloping smile with reassuring eyes.

"It doesn't need anything from us Aria, honey, if it decides to leave, then that's its own choice."

And so forth, that was what my expectations were. That I would go to school, and enjoy a nice summer with my Dad and no freakish Ghost pokemon ruining my life. Unfortunately, my day at school had not gone perfectly. These kids in my class noticed I was sitting by myself, reading during the break period and had proceeded to throw chunks of food at my head. I had gotten up and yelled at them for their insolence and they teased me until my cheeks were glistening with colorless tears. That day I ran home after school, stepping into a puddle of mud as I crossed the street onto Fawkes Drive.  
I ran up to my red door and pulled out the house keys my Dad entrusted me with, still trying to keep from crying. I entered the house sobbing and pulling bits of french fries out of my hair and I ran into the kitchen without noticing that the house had been as pristine as I had left it. There was no sign of the Ghost pokemon, but I was so distraught I hadn't noticed. I had been picked on, previously, by the same group of kids and didn't tell my Dad because I was scared what he would do. I walked up to the kitchen drawer and pulled out a knife. I stared at it as a tear had dropped onto the sheath and I noticed my reflection on the blade.

It brought bittersweet memories of when I'd come home and cut after being bullied at school. When my Dad asked why I had slash marks on my arms I told him I had fallen down the stairs of the school building, he believed me. Or so I thought he did.

One day after school I came home with horrible intentions bent up in my head, and I hadn't realized my Dad was home in his office. He heard the unsheathing of the knife from the kitchen drawer and ran at me, removing the knife. By this time my sobs turned into roaring wails and he hugged me tightly, never letting go, never scolding me, never striking me.

I told him everything that had happened to me and apologized incessantly for lying to him. He didn't reprimand me or tell me I was stupid. He just hugged me and helped me through the entire mishap. I was taken to a hospital in Jubilife City and treated for minor self-inflicted wounds. I was only twelve years old.

Maybe it was my Dad's genuine kindness that changed me that frightful night and I had ways of coping with the bullies at school. However, on the last day of school a girl had taken my lunch, thrown it on the ground and proceeded to stomp on my food, rendering me hungry for the rest of the day.

I held the knife in my hand, thinking of my Dad and his kind words as I placed it on my wrist. The knife remembered slicing into my flesh in this spot previously, and it reacquainted with the scars briefly before I plunged it, tearing open a sealed wound from almost a year ago. I felt the pain racing through my body as I prepared myself for the next. The pain helped heal the misery and hunger I felt all day, but opened a new door that allowed physical pain to slam into my body. I was gearing up to go again until I heard: "Don't."

I dropped the scarlet-tipped knife and it clattered onto the ground as I peered for my Dad to be standing in the doorway of his office. But my Dad wasn't home. He was at the laboratory today and wouldn't come home for a few hours. It was to my horror, that the one who had stopped me was the same one I had just met and scared me senseless the previous night.

I was face to face with a frightening poltergeist, scared so badly I wasn't able to utter a peep. It looked keenly into my tear-stricken face and repeated: "Don't."

"What?" I whispered. It took almost all of my body to whisper that word and that word initiated the complicated relationship between human and pokemon.

"I said 'don't' do you need me to say it again?"The Ghost Pokemon shrieked. I almost fell apart, partly because of my sadness and I just looked downcast because I didn't know what I was doing anymore. First I was disregarding my father's words of self-harming and now I was talking to an incorporeal life form that I had expected to float away by the time I got back from school. In reality, I didn't break down because I was kind of glad to have someone there to stop me. Who knows what else I would have done if it weren't for Rotom staying in my home.

"Why are you still here?"I asked the floating specter.

"Your father saved my life,"said the ghost."And now I'm saving yours."

"How can I talk to you? My teacher once told me that pokemon can't communicate with humans."

Rotom looked unfazed by my ignorant remark."This is true, but some pokemon can grow to learn the language of humans and some can go as far as to communicate. This however is really only limited to Psychic and Ghost pokemon."Rotom explained."Is there anything else you want to say?"

"I wish I could hug you,"I caught the ghost off guard. I gasped at my statement and frightened myself briefly. Rotom had struck a source of courage inside of me that glue like a fire in my heart and reminded me that I had something to live for, even if now wasn't the time to express it.

"You saved me from cutting." I told the ghost and proceeded to explain my day in great detail. The pokemon actually listened to me and even made a small chuckle when I said my friend tripped before math class. I immediately grew attached to the Ghost Pokemon and evoked a bond I would never let go of for the rest of my life. When my Dad came home that night I told him what had happened. He looked disappointed at first, but hugged me gently and kissed my forehead. He smiled his smile at Rotom and turned to me.

"I think you should keep it."

"_Him," _Rotom corrected my father.

"You're a boy Ghost?" I inquired. Rotom nodded and my father and I just accepted this fact without making the situation any weirder.

It was decided that Rotom would sleep in my room for the rest of his life and it took some time but I slowly adjusted to the slight buzzing of his body that kept me up some nights. Now it's the only thing that will put me to sleep. I don't think I would've survived school if it wasn't for Rotom stopping me at the end of sixth grade. In actuality, I became more confident in myself and it drastically changed my personality. I busted out of my introverted shell, making more friends through the rest of middle school, and a whole batch of new friends once High School came around. All while maintaining an exponentially increasing friendship with Rotom. I even made the Girl's Varsity Lacrosse team.


	2. Chapter 2 - Twinleaf Festival

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 2: Twinleaf Festival

There was no sound to wake me up in the morning. I had aroused in the morning and Rotom was already buzzing with life by the time I had gotten out of bed. After doing my bathroom routine I went downstairs into the kitchen only to find a yellow note left for me from Dad on the fridge. It said "Had a meeting." I opened the fridge to find a plate of pancakes for me and as I pulled them out I recalled our father-daughter hangout at Sandgem Beaches last night.

Rotom buzzed around me as I ate my food, and I knew that I would see my friends today. Daniel and Veronica have been my friends since the sixth grade and Veronica even has a pokemon of her own. Daniel's parents work with my Dad at the research facility while Veronica's mom works at the pokemon market in Sandgem Town. Both families forbade their children from pursuing a journey through the Sinnoh region and it's really unfortunate. My father asked if that was something I would be interested in and I asked if he had gone on an adventure. His father had also forbade him from any contact with pokemon but he secretly, was obsessed with them. He always wanted to take on the Sinnoh League with his own team of pokemon but couldn't because his parents were against the whole idea. I told him I'd think about it, as we were walking home from the beach.

I went upstairs and changed into my summer clothes, before looking at myself in the mirror and being genuinely happy to see my reflection. Apparently, Rotom had buzzed into the room.

"Let's go pick up Daniel."

"Cool, were going to the Twinleaf Festival to see what's there, is there something you wanna do tonight?" I asked.

"By 'were' you mean Veronica and Daniel?" Rotom sounded dissatisfied. "You know I don't get along with Donna." Donna is Veronica's Alakazam. Rotom and Donna never see eye to eye and have gotten into heated fights previously. Despite the type situation, Rotom and Donna are evenly matched in power.

"You don't have to come with us, you know." I said to the reflection.

"I can manage." Rotom said earnestly. I smiled again and we descended my dark-brown staircase and out my red door into the bright summer air. We immediately diverged into the bustling city atmosphere that was the Twinleaf Festival.

Twinleaf town was particularly busy this time of year. Each year the Society members host a celebration for the battle against Team Galactic in Virbank Square, on the other side of town. To get there I would have to take a bus until I reached Half-Day Road. From there it's just a short walk to the square where the Pokemon Society organizes the Twinleaf Festival for four weeks starting in the third week of June. From there, people from all over Sinnoh, and many other regions, too, congregate at this glorious festival. My first time was two years ago, but I couldn't attend the last one because of the war.

The war had increased to a critical level last year, around the summer. There are two factions residing in Sinnoh at the moment: The Pokemon Society and Team Galactic. The two factions split Sinnoh in half with Team Galactic occupying everything east of Mt. Coronet while the Society has everything west. The exceptions to this came last year when Team Galactic, and their followers from Snowpoint City, descended into Eterna slaughtering hundreds, ultimately conquering the city. In response, the Society took over Hearthome City with no compromise from either side. Twinleaf, by default joined the Pokemon Society with no questions asked.

Luckily for us, we are significantly far away from Mt. Coronet rendering us safe for the most part. The actual reason the festival didn't take place was partly because Team Galactic had conducted Air Raids on Canalave and Jubilife. The other reason was because all Society members were to defend Eterna City from the siege. Some went from Twinleaf and didn't come back. Others were stationed in Hearthome City to help in the occupation.

Both factions want nothing more than to destroy the other side. When I first learned about the war, I admit, I didn't know the reasons or the facts, but now I keep tabs on the news whenever I can. I can't imagine life under the Galactic Regime and I even have a friend who lives in Sunnyshore City. I met him at the Twinleaf Festival two years ago, but haven't heard from him in a long time.

Ryan was a technical operations major at the Sunnyshore University. He told me about the Galactic occupation and the benefits they give to students who comply with their demands. According to Ryan, Team Galactic supplies things like money and pokemon to willing students at the University who conduct extensive research in quantum mechanics. He also told me about some students at the University who protested against the Galactic occupation and sought alignment with the Pokemon Society. They were never seen or heard from again.

I ended up telling Ryan about Rotom and he was simply fascinated with the appearance and abilities of my pokemon. He was enamored with the fact that Rotom could surmount the electric properties of mechanical objects and become them. It was a nice interjection to avoid talking about a touchy subject like the war and Rotom and I had a blast with Ryan at the Festival.

"Where are we going?" Rotom inquired as we started walking away from our house.

"I figured it's a nice day out so why not walk to the Festival?"

"Are you kidding me, I'm gonna be exhausted," Rotom complained. Despite not having legs, Rotom expelled energy by floating and even though it does use his energy he's more than capable of pacing, his levitation patterns.

"You're pretty lazy today." I said to him.

"I am not!" Rotom yelled.

"And cranky."

We approached the intersection of Fawkes Drive and Nuzleaf Avenue passing by other houses, some neighbors and kids playing with their pokemon. I saw my neighbor, Bernadette relaxing in the sun with her Grovyle. We said 'hello' to them as we walked by and they waved at us. Bernadette was a friend of my father's, when we evacuated during the Air Raids last year, it was Bernadette who took my family into her fortified basement.

Rotom and I crossed the street and kept walking straight as we were approaching Daniel's house. I figured I should say something to older sister so I approached the house and rang his doorbell.

"One second." I was surprised to hear Daniel's voice from inside the house. I thought I was meeting him and Veronica at the Festival. I heard some shuffling in the house and after a moment my friend Daniel opened the door and faced me.

"Aria! Hey what's up? I was getting ready to meet you and Veronica at the square."

"I thought I was meeting both of you guys there?" I inquired. It turned out that Veronica and her mother had driven up to the Festival and I just didn't catch word of this.

"Are you walking there, or?"

"Yeah, Rotom and I agreed that today's a nice day and we would walk to the Festival, you should come with us." Daniel nodded and Rotom scowled to himself at the word 'agreed.' Daniel let us both into his home and I saw his sister on the sofa watching the news.

"Nothing good is on," His older sister Samantha yelled to me. We were also pretty close, but it was Daniel who became one of two important people in my life. Samantha had pale skin and long-brown hair which she had tied up in a bun on her head. She wore a pastel orange t-shirt which had the words _Love And Fire _written on it. It must have been a band or something. She also wore black short-shorts with pink stripes on the seams. She was coming with us.

Daniel surfaced from his room on the other side of the house and came to retrieve his backpack. His sister turned off the television and we all exited the house as Samantha locked it.

We walked down Fawkes Drive passing by several other buildings in Twinleaf until we crossed paths with a huge group of people and their pokemon who were also walking to the Festival.

When we reached Virbank Square, there were people everywhere. People in celebratory booths handing out badges and food. Drinks, in the form of water bottles, were on tables already being picked up by passersby. It was a large area of land similar to a carnival with people and pokemon alike enjoying themselves. Togetherness was never as strong in any other place than it was in Twinleaf.

Samantha, Daniel and I crossed paths with a familiar face, who told Daniel to meet us in this exact location. It was my best friend Veronica Hale and she was with her mother and Donna, the Alakazam.

"Alaaa-zam" Donna pointed her twisted spoons at Rotom who stared down the psychic pokemon with vicious ghastly eyes.

"Donna, please play nice with Rotom." Veronica said to her pokemon calming it down just a little. Veronica's mother looked at the pokemon and smiled a little before opening her mouth and speaking to us.

"I-I just wanted to say have a good time, kids and try to stay out of trouble please," she said speaking to us. "Veronica, dear, when should I pick you up?"

"Mom, actually I think I'm gonna walk around with my friends and they'll walk me home." Veronica said staring at her mother.

"Veronica isn't that a little too far? Don't you think so?" She turned to us.

"Mom. I'm a senior in high school I think I'm capable of taking care of myself." She looked at her mother angrily.

"Ok." her mother conceded. "I'll be at work until midnight so I won't be home and you have the keys, I love you."

"I love you, too mom" Veronica said hugging her mom, amid the crowds of people. The four of us continued down the Festival looking at all the pokemon and people as they joined together for a remarkable celebration, despite the war being a tie. I saw three small, purple Nidorans running around through the legs of pedestrians and a Leafeon became enraged when it almost was struck by the Nidoran's poisonous spikes. She ran after the Nidoran out of anger and its trainer ran after the grass pokemon in horror, almost losing sight of the leaf pokemon before returning her into his pokeball.

We neared the main stage where two people were standing. A man dressed in military attire and a women dressed in a gray outfit with a black skirt. Flying next to her, was a Togekiss. She held a microphone to her mouth as she directed everyone's attention to the stage. The life behind us was still taking place as a huge majority of the Festival gathered around the large stage to see the festivities. I saw people and pokemon standing side by side looking up at the man and the woman on stage as the woman began to speak again. The Togekiss remained in the air and hummed to itself, before perching onto the ground next to the woman.

"Hello, everyone of Twinleaf Festival." Her voice was magnetic and radiant. "We have a special guest who is here to relay some great news to all of us." She handed the microphone to the official looking man. She and her Togekiss stood back to let the man have the floor.

"Greetings, all. For those of you who aren't familiar with me, I am General Ernest Barrington of the Society military. I make executive commands in the war front against Team Galactic and I've come here today to tell those of you with pokemon some good news, my apologies if I'm wasting some other people's time." After he said this several people who didn't have pokemon with them left the area of the stage and returned to the festivities while Barrington awaited the undivided attention of those who stayed.

"Recently, there has not been any good news from the negotiation table in Celestic Town. Team Galactic refuses to pull out of Eterna and we in turn, are tightening our grip on Hearthome. But. One of my colleagues, an advocate of the Pokemon Sinnoh League, made a daring arrangement with the Galactic Commander, Mars. He and Mars agreed to reestablish the Pokemon League." As Barrington finished that statement the crowd erupted into positive hysteria. People were shouting happily and pokemon too felt the good vibe. Donna and Rotom remained content.

"The Society has a booth open for any participants wanting to take the Sinnoh League challenge, and as a benefit you will be able to join the Pokemon Society for no additional fees." Barrington laughed and people applauded at the General's accomplishing speech. The four of us looked back and saw a large booth to the right of the stage with a large _society _sign hovering over a desk with nine people handing trainers paperwork. After each trainer had finished his paperwork, they were handed a badge that said "Welcome to the Pokemon Society" and a Badge Case for their Gym Badges.

"Before you all get excited and sign up, I should warn you that Team Galactic reserves the right to revoke your Badge Case and arrest you should you be participating in malicious activities while you are in Galactic Sinnoh. If you are a Society member, please be wary of this and show them your Society badge. They will comply with our guidelines established in the Celestic-Sinnoh League Accords so you will have nothing to worry about." Barrington handed the microphone back to the woman who returned to the stage.

"Now, we have a special musical guest here with us tonight." She said as the scarlet curtain began creaking, open revealing band equipment. "We will be joined by the musical performance of Love And Fire." The crowd erupted into applause and people from all over the Festival convened at the stage where the band revealed themselves to be preparing to sing. Samantha was ecstatic and told us we didn't have to stay with her.

"Let's go see if any trainer is battling!" Veronica yelled to us as the intensity of the music began and the singer of Love And Fire began a singing. I saw more people walking up to the registration for the League, but followed Daniel and Veronica to a place enclosed by people. In the middle I saw two trainers I didn't know and a Swellow was battling a Hitmonchan.

"Dynamic Punch, let's go!" Said the Hitmonchan's trainer. It jumped and hit at Swellow knocking it about in the sky.

"Double Team, then Aerial Ace!" roared Swellow's trainer. It duplicated itself, confusing the boxing pokemon and when Swellow was in Hitmonchan's blind spot it, it swooped down and collided with it, resulting in a knockout. The crowd roared as the pokemon returned to their trainers and they were escorted off the battlefield. A guy who looked about my age walked to the center and yelled, "Anyone wanna battle?" Nobody went into the ring at first until Veronica's voice rang in the inner reaches of my skull. She had taken the boy up on his offer and she walked up to the arena with Donna as the boy got into a fighting stance.

"Let's do this, Lucario!" The boy yelled as he threw a pokeball releasing a Lucario. It was magnificent and the crowd roared again. I heard someone yell at boy, "Go Wesley, woo!" Veronica looked happily at the trainer's pokemon. She knows that Lucario is a fighting type and fighting types are weak to psychic pokemon. But Veronica wasn't stupid. Lucario is a dual steel-fighting type which means it isn't weak to psychic type attacks. But she didn't have time to come up with a battle strategy as Wesley had ordered Lucario to use an Aura Sphere.

"Dodge it, Donna!" Veronica said. Donna was fast and got out of the way before the Aura Sphere could hit her. The attack was absorbed by the ground and at this time, the crowd backed a ways from the arena so as not to get hit with special attacks. Daniel and Rotom were at my sides while Rotom was staring keenly at the Lucario.

"Donna, let's try a Shock Wave!" Veronica executed the command. The electrical attack began emanating from Donna as she expelled it using her spoons and psychic powers. Lucario jumped out of the way but was still struck by the attack.

"How did you do that?!" Wesley said confoundedly.

"Shock Wave is a move that never misses." Rotom said out loud. Only I heard him and smiled at him. He smiled back. Shock Wave was a move Rotom had an issue with learning but now that he knows the move Discharge it doesn't matter.

"Force Palm!" Wesley yelled, as his Lucario ran extremely fast at Donna striking her with his palms. Donna fell on her back and quickly regained composure as her next command came from Veronica.

"Let's try a Psybeam!" Donna raised her spoon, aimed precisely at Lucario and fired a burst of psychic energy into the pokemon pushing it back. The pokemon extended his palms and pushed on the beam of energy as if he were able to push it away, somehow. Donna increased the intensity of the beam and it hit Lucario so hard it sent him flying back.

"Finish it up with another Shock Wave!" Veronica yelled as her Alakazam fired another ray of electricity and sent Lucario flying once again, this time he didn't get back up.

"No!" Wesley yelled running after his faint pokemon. The crowd erupted with applause again as Veronica hugged Donna tightly. Donna was overjoyed with her victory against a steel type and they quickly rejoined us on the sidelines. A boy, who flushed red cheeks congratulated Veronica on her victory and we headed down the path from were we came.

"Wow, that was so cool!" Daniel said putting an arm on Veronica's pale shoulder. She wore a black tank-top and had her purse on her right shoulder. She had short dark hair and wore blue short-shorts. She looked at us with her light brown eyes and raised her fist.

"That Lucario had it coming." Veronica joked. "I felt like Donna needed something to pummel. Show the others I'm still good." She smiled darkly. Donna chuckled.

"Donna is getting stronger every day." I added. Rotom harrumphed when I said this. Then he stared at Donna coldly and she returned an icy stare.

"Every time I watch you two battle it makes me want a pokemon even more." Daniel said.

"Then why don't you just adopt one?" Veronica inquired. Then she remembered.

"Well I can't, remember?" Daniel said anyway. Daniel's parents were against pokemon at all costs. He and his sister were forbidden from having a pokemon of their own. Veronica's mom was against it, too but Donna was so careful and nice around Veronica that she just had to let Veronica keep her.

"Sorry, again." Veronica said.

We had an amazing night. We ate some food, had some more battles with our pokemon and met some new people. Some even from Galactic Sinnoh. I looked among all the faces that we passed by and none of them were my friend Ryan. I had left my home hoping I'd see his face again but perhaps were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Samantha had caught up with us later that night after Love And Fire had closed the show and we decided to start going home. Other people were leaving the Festival but it continued into the night and would be here the next morning, and the next. The first night of the festival is never the most exciting. It starts getting really crazy during the second week in July when fireworks are played and everyone is out having a good time. Perhaps, Ryan couldn't make it today and would come some other time. I remember when I first met him it wasn't on the first day of the Festival. It was actually on the last and he kissed me underneath the fireworks before we parted ways, forever.

My eyes were drawn to a trainer and her Keckleon as they approached the Society's long table, as we made our way past it on our way back to the stage area. I saw the girl signing a lot of papers and being handed a badge and her Sinnoh League badge case. Rotom was aware that I was looking at the table intently. Daniel, who also saw me looking at the table asked what was up.

"Hey I'll be right back I gotta use the bathroom." I told him. I wasn't lying. I really had to go, but after I left them by themselves. I walked a ways until I reached a building by a food booth and relieved myself.

After washing my hands, I exited and Rotom was waiting outside the restroom for me.

"I saw you looking at the registration table." He looked at me. I looked away.

"I was just looking, nothing more." I lied.

"You know we could do it." He said to me. He's tried before to get me to do the Sinnoh League and one time I told him I didn't have enough pokemon, which angered him.

"I'm not sure, what about my Dad?" I asked the buzzing ghost pokemon. He shook his plasma head and began talking again. "Aren't you out of high school now? You're old enough to be going to college then." Rotom said sternly. I looked up at him and he held my gaze with his ghostly eyes.

"Yeah, so I wouldn't have time to take on the League." I told him, looking for an excuse.

"Whose gonna be paying for your schooling?" Rotom shocked me with this question.

"I'll get a job."

"No job you could ever get could make you that much money. And your father doesn't have the money despite saving up a huge sum. You could get a scholarship or if you take on the League, prize money."

"I should be donating that prize money. And how are you so sure the prize is money, anyway?'

"Because, Aria, I did a little digging through your Dad's computer and -"

"How did you?" I began.

"Really, Aria? Did you forget who I was?" Rotom looked appalled. Then it hit me.

"Oh, right, ghost... can take over electronics... right." I blushed. Rotom rolled his eyes and resumed talking.

"Well I did a little digging and found if you come out in first place, the prize is three-hundred and fifty thousand." He brightened up. "That is your chance to A go on an adventure like you and I have dreamed of, and B set yourself up for a well-paying job for the rest of your life."

I took this into deep consideration. What would my Dad think? What would my friends think? Is it even safe to embark on a journey through a region torn by war?

"You will surely find lot's of friends and maybe some new pokemon." Rotom added, only he relinquished a little at the word _new._ "Alright." I told him. "Let's go sign up."

It took around ten minutes to sign the papers and the woman who was helping me smiled as she handed me my badge and Badge Case as she began registering the next applicant. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Barrington eying me from behind the registration desk. He was also observing Rotom. A kid ran up to me with a Poochyena in his hands.

"Wow I've never seen a pokemon like yours before! Can I touch it?" The little boy asked me. I told him that Rotom was a ghost pokemon and he couldn't be touched and the little boy smirked and ran off. Barrington was still eying me for whatever reason.

I looked around a bit for my friends before reuniting with them and we decided to head on home. I made sure of to hide my objects from my friends. We walked under the twinkling white stars that night as we passed by lots of people in the warm summer air having barbeques with their fire-type pokemon or talking with friends about life. As we neared Veronica's house she told us to not worry and continue on.

"Bye Veronica, tell your mom we all said hey." Daniel said sweetly. She waved one last time at us before disappearing into her dark, lonely house.

Samantha, Daniel and I talked about the highlights from the Festival and decided we would go again soon. Tomorrow my Dad insisted on spending the day with me and I had made it my business to talk to him about the League. I hugged Samantha and Daniel good-bye as they went into their bright home, and I heard their Dad get up and their Mom was preparing dinner. Rotom and I went home, alone.

As we entered my white house I saw my Dad sitting at the island with a newspaper in hand and a coffee on the marble. He turned around and saw Rotom and I entering so he got up and came over to us on the couch.

"How was work?" I asked.

"Boring." He lied. And smiled his smile and we embraced.

"How was the Festival?" he asked me. I told him about walking there, Major Barrington's announcement, the concert, the battles, the food and he told me about his colleagues personal lives and had a quality moment in my living room.

"Did you register for the Sinnoh League?" His question caught me off guard. Rotom looked at us nervously.

"Um." I said.

"Yes, I insisted that she enroll." Rotom piped up. He said to my father that after a little convincing that I would take on the League with him.

"Well that's new." My father smiled. I saw his golden-hair had lost some of its color tonight.

"You know how long I've been waiting for this moment?" I was astounded when he said this.

"Dad, you didn't take me for someone who would let their kid go on a journey like this." I told him shyly.

"Kiddo, when I was your age I was so excited to receive my first pokemon. I made plans with my childhood friends to get all the gym badges and beat the League. I would become a pokemon master. But my old man, he shot my hopes and dreams down like they were nothing. Well, I grew up without any pokemon and nothing, no badges. I got a nice job." He paused. "I got you. And if I had any regrets it would be that." He held a solemn frown on his face. "But you were the best that ever happened to me, Aria." He kissed my forehead.

"Ever since you got Rotom, it's been my dream to watch you, my daughter, take on the very thing I wasn't able to. Please do it for me." This brought tears to my eyes. I hugged him and I could've sworn I heard Rotom whimpering. I showed him the badge and the Badge Case and he smiled his beautiful, magnetic smile. It filled me with joy to know he supported my decision and I remembered the war. It was as though my father had read my mind.

"But please be careful out there, love, there is still fighting going on between the two factions of Sinnoh. I know you're old enough to be able to look after yourself but please do me a favor and watch yourself a little more carefully." He looked at Rotom. "Please watch over my daughter. Make sure she doesn't do any drugs or sleep with any strangers." Rotom lit up and assured my Dad I'd be careful.

That night I was so ecstatic. Rotom and I talked for a little about our plans to begin our journey tomorrow and I told him we'd talk to Daniel and Veronica to see if they would like to join me. We fell asleep to my Dad, still working downstairs on his business documents.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Professor's Words

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 3: The Professor's Words

My Dad left me a backpack filled with objects I had never seen before in my life. Rotom and I were walking all the way to Sandgem Town to greet the Professor. He might have some words of advice about my journey and my Dad made me promise would make sure I spoke to him before heading on to Jubilife City.

As I and Rotom walked and levitated along, respectively, we were walking on a path that surrounded us on two sides by trees. I've lived my entire life in an urban setting and only a few times have my Dad and I gone to Sandgem Town. But that was with his car and walking to Sandgem Town takes about twenty minutes on foot.

"So how long are we walking for?" Rotom inquired. I was getting kind of sick of his whining.

"2 hours." I said. No response from him.

"Great." He said flatly. Then, he didn't say anything to me for another five minutes of walking.

We passed by Starly infested trees and I even saw a Shinx playfully hiding from a Bidoof. There were also two Burmy hanging from a tree and I could see a Mothim who guarded them from above, on a different branch. It looked down at us with stern silence as we passed underneath it and wouldn't take its gaze off of us after we had left, as though we would attack in a moments notice. The Burmy were nestled in their leafy abodes hanging limply from a tree like a Kakuna before it evolves into a Beedrill. I didn't quite understand the evolutionary line of Burmy because it could either evolve into a Mothim or a Wormadam, which I think the Wormadam look cooler. They come in three different forms, too: one of Grass, Ground or Steel.

"Are you sure it takes two hours, because I'm seeing Sandgem Town in the distance, Aria?" Rotom beckoned at the upcoming town whose buildings were closer to the ground than Twinleaf's.

"I said two hours to scare you, looks like it worked. Guess I really am a Ghost pokemon after all." I laughed. He scoffed but emitted a chuckle as well. We came up to Sandgem Town without any injury and I saw a building my father described: Large red lab with lots of windows. I spotted it going down Willow St. and approached the friendly-looking laboratory.

Before I could even knock a kid my age opened the door and ran into me. He wore a red cap with what appeared to be a dark green pokeball on it. He wore a blue jacked with a red shirt underneath and perfectly nestled on his neck, was a white scarf. I could see the outline of a rectangular object in the pocket of his dark-brown pants and it almost seemed like I was looking at a person from the future.

He stared at me with his dark blue eyes for a second before speaking.

"Can I help you?" he asked me. He looked at Rotom almost frightened.

"Hi, my name is Aria Ketchum and I'm looking for Professor Rowan, he's a friend of my father's." The boy looked interested. Almost. He darted back inside, saying nothing to me as though I had vanished and reappeared almost instantly beckoning me inside the lab. Inside I saw some people dressed in stereotypical lab coats operating desktop computers and some even had a floating Magnemite near their work station.

"This way please." The boy guided. "My name is Lucas Moriarty, I uh work as the Professor's assistant." He told me as we walked through a narrow hallway into a second region of the lab. He told me to wait by a wall as he knocked on a door and was allowed entrance by someone who wasn't Professor Rowan. I couldn't really justify that because I hadn't seen him in seven years. Rotom and I waited and waited until Lucas came back out and told me Professor Rowan was glad I had stopped by. I walked into the room Lucas had gone into and saw an old man sitting in his chair, almost menacingly. He was looking through a window until he noticed I was standing at the desk, which he was sitting at. He was a gruff, old man in his sixties it looked like and I feared his hearty voice when he opened his wide jaw to speak at me.

"How was the walk here?" He asked me in his gruff voice to match his stark appearance. The way he was talking to me it felt as though I were a child being scolded by their parents.

"It was fine, Rotom and I got a little exercise here and we even saw some Burmy." I told him. To my surprise, though, the Professor was absolutely marveled at my story and stood to shake my hand. I dropped all my assumptions I had about this man when he asked me more questions about the Burmy, almost forgetting I had existed.

"Before we get off track, Aria, I want to take a good look at your pokemon." The Professor said turning his attention to my Rotom. Rotom didn't utter a word, not to me nor the Professor. He looked all over Rotom's ghostly body and could find no imperfections about the pokemon's exterior. Rotom didn't bat any eye when the Professor reached out and tried to touch the pokemon, only to find his hand had gone through the incorporeal body of the ghost rendering him untouchable by physical mediums.

"I am simply fascinated by your pokemon, Aria." He said my name so gently, like he knew me or something, but I hadn't seen him in over seven years. I was even surprised he remembered my face, let alone my name.

"How many years has it been?" He asked me.

"Seven." I told him flatly.

"Seven." He repeated, still staring at Rotom.

"Well anyway, I already know why you're here. Is it because you took me up on that journey I offered you those years ago?" He guessed. And he was correct.

"Yes." I smiled. "After Rotom got better my father and I decided to keep him. And he's become my best friend."

"That's so cool. I don't think I'll ever become friends with a ghost pokemon." Lucas blurted.

"That's pleasant, Lucas. But I have something I want to ask you about, Aria." He looked at me intently. "When I was your age, I received a Chimchar as my starter pokemon. We went on breathtaking adventures through all of the lands exploring new places, meeting new people and pokemon. Something that I couldn't keep away from was the evolution of pokemon, something I chose to study for the rest of my life. It's evolution that perplexes me, such like the Burmy you saw. They have not one, but two evolutionary lines. A female Burmy in time, will evolve into a Wormadam, but a male Burmy will evolve into a Mothim. Another strange thing is Combee. Why is it that female Combee evolve in to Vespiquen and male Combee do not evolve whatsoever? It's these perplexities that haunt my thoughts day and night. It seems like I walked the world with my pokemon, until I settled down here and became a professor who studies pokemon evolution. Perhaps my ultimate dream is to find all of the pokemon, because there were just too many to come by. I already have Lucas here with his brand new pokedex getting ready to explore the vast reaches of the Sinnoh region and find new pokemon. I want you to also take on that journey with your pokemon. I want you to explore the vast reaches of this beautiful land mass. I want you to meet new people and new pokemon on your journey in discovering yourself. I want your dreams to come to true, Aria because your dreams are my dreams. The war between the factions can't stop you from completing your dreams, right Aria?"

I looked at him, speechless. His words penetrated my soul like daggers slicing through raw meat and I almost turned to Rotom and said: Wow. But Rotom and I just awaited the Professor to reopen his mouth and divulge us with more stories about his past and getting me ready for my very own voyage.

"There's no point in rambling on, so will you accept a pokedex from me and pursue the whole garrison of pokemon in the world?" Rowan stared deeply into my soul.

"Yes." I told him grinning widely as the excitement in my body raged. Rowan handed me a pokedex with dimensions similar to the object in Lucas's pocket and I touched the futuristic device with my hands, opening it, observing its features.

"When ever you discover a new pokemon, the pokedex will enter the findings into its archive where you will be able to record your details of the pokemon." The Professor explained. Rotom looked happily at my pokedex as if to posses it. I gave him one look that said he would never be able to desecrate this fine piece of machinery.

"I suppose I can let you get on with your journey, Aria. No reason to keep yourself cooped up in a cramped place like this." Rowan chuckled as he escorted us to the front of the laboratory.

"I can't thank you enough, Professor. I'll stop by sometime and show you my pokedex and the new pokemon I've caught. How's that sound?" I smiled at him.

"I couldn't ask for anything more, Aria. Farewell."

Rotom and I walked down the road away from the small town of Sandgem after parting ways with Lucas and the Professor.

"Can I see your pokedex?" Rotom asked innocently.

"Only if you don't posses it. I saw you eying it before." I sneered. Rotom scrunched the corners of his mouth like a child and I held out the precious pokedex as he observed it spinning around my hand like a planet orbiting the sun.

"That's pretty cool, have you heard of the pokemon watches?" Rotom asked, inquisitively. I remembered my Dad put a box that said something along the lines of pokemon watch sealed in a box.

"I think my Dad packed one in my backpack, I'll open it when we find a place to nap." I told him.

"We're sleeping outside?" Rotom asked, hurriedly, noticing that the sun was beginning to go down. I told him that since we set out, we'd be sleeping outside frequently, and at first it bothered him but he grew to like the outdoors since he spent most of his life outside of a pokeball and indoors.

"Can I ask you something, Aria?" Rotom said as we found a comfortable spot to sleep for the night. I accepted the question and got comfortable for a discussion.

"If we live so close to the Professor, like within walking distance, why haven't you seen him in seven years?" I took this in considerably. To be honest, I didn't know the answer to that. I just hadn't seen the Professor since that night Rotom came into my life.

"After you moved in with us, I guess I just never saw him. My dad talked about him a few times but I never really bothered with seeing him again. That was before I learned what happened to him, through my dad." Rotom looked at me with his curious blue eyes.

"The Pokemon Society needed the Professor's work and my dad said the Professor had moved into the Society Headquarters in Canalave City to conduct tests for them on Iron Island. My father never said what the experiments were because even he didn't know." That was my answer.

We quickly snoozed to the sound of Noctowl cooing in the warm night sky. I dreamed of all the new people and pokemon I would meet and the friends I'd make along the way. I was still upset that my friends from home couldn't come with me on my adventure but that was fine, at least I knew they were safe at home. I remember crying my eyes out after Daniel told me his parents scolded him for asking such a ridiculous request and Veronica's mom wasn't about to let her daughter pursue her own death at her hands.

That morning we set out again. I heard a rush of cool wind brush past my body as Rotom and I walked along a trail and near the edge of a small cliff I could see the tall buildings of Jubilife City. It was a stunning view of the city I had never seen before. I saw the Global Communications Building in the south western part of the city with its trademark oscillating globe on the top of the building. Even Rotom was astonished at the beauty of artificial creation.

We descended into the city expecting to see lots of people, when in actuality there weren't too many people outside. I wondered if there was something keeping all of the people from the outside when I realized there was a large building dispensing people now, and written on the building was, _Enjoy this beautiful work in Pokemon Cinema: Jirachi and the Prince of Stars! _People were walking out of this theatre with their pokemon discussing after thoughts of the film and it stole my attention as I stood in the middle of the sidewalk as cars passed by.

Rotom and I spotted a pokemon center in the front reaches of the city and we crossed the street and found our way into the building. Inside there lots of people with sick and injured pokemon waiting to be healed. Nurse Joy and her Blissey were avidly working with guests to properly treat their pokemon and some people were even their to have injuries of their own to be treated. I walked passed the large amounts of people as I made my way to the front desk.

"One moment please." The Nurse said as she spoke to a man whose Yanmega had a tear in its wings. The Yanmega was taken in a gurney by two Blissey as the Yanmega's trainer followed behind it worrisome. Then Nurse Joy turned back to me and sweetly opened her mouth again.

"Hi, sweetie what can I get for you today?"

"Hey, I'm actually not here because of any injuries." The nurse stopped smiling so brightly and only looked at me like I was wasting her valuable time.

"Sorry but I was hoping you could show me a map of the Sinnoh region?" I asked nicely.

"Try looking over there on that desk. See if there's a map in the cubby holes." Nurse Joy directed me and immediately shut me out as a girl who was next, ran up to the desk holding a baby Zigzagoon that looked like it was paralyzed.

Rotom and I observed a map that was tucked poorly into a cabinet. We spread out the map on a table in the pokemon center as we looked for our location. Another set of Blissey walked alongside a Hypno and its trainer, as the trainer thanked the Blissey for their help. I found the city marked Jubilife on the map and learned that the first city I would have to take a Gym Battle in was Oreburgh, which was just through a cave down the road from Jubilife City.

"What's the plan, Aria?" Rotom asked impatiently.

"We can hangout in this city or start getting to Oreburgh City, your call."

"Oreburgh. It is." Rotom said spontaneously. "I really wanna see what these Gym Leaders do to make their names so big in the book, ya know?"

"Yeah, I got you, alright let's not waste these people's time here anymore." I said as we exited the center. Two Pokemon Society members were walking with a Glameow as they paused to look at a little boy and his Shinx then pointed at him and laughed. I was puzzled by their rudeness and walked up to them. They saw me walk up to them and eyed me icily. One who was a girl who seemed to be the ring leader. The little boy playing with his Shinx was crying into his sleeve and ran off as the little electric pokemon ran after him.

"Why are you laughing at that kid and his pokemon?" I asked the girl who appeared not too much older than myself.

"Do I know you?" She sneered. "How about you go play with your pokemon like that sap and get out of my face."

"Is that a threat?" I got up in her face. She was chewing gum and eyed me coldly. I wasn't about to take any bullying from this chick and I was prepared to fight her. Her companion, a man several years older than her held her arm back.

"Caroline, don't bother with her, let's just go." the man said to his cohort.

"Don't tell me what to do, Bill. I'm itching to fight this girl." She smiled dastardly at me. At this point Rotom was buzzing intimidatingly at the two Society members who noticed my pokemon's presence for the first time.

"Cool Pokemon." Caroline said. She wouldn't take her slimy eyes off Rotom until I grabbed her attention.

"Where's your pokemon?" I asked her. She threw a pokeball and released an Empoleon waiting to fight.

"We're gonna do this right here, stiff." Caroline spat at me.

"You will call me by name, Aria." I told her. I wasn't going to let her get away with making that little boy cry for no reason.

"Empoleon take a good look at the Ghost you're about to demolish." Empoleon stared down at Rotom as we created a vacuous space for our pokemon to brawl.

"Empoleon, use Metal Claw!" Caroline roared as her Empoleon raced at Rotom at incredible speed, and struck Rotom with a clear cut Metal Claw sending Rotom flying backwards.

"Let's retaliate with a Discharge!" I yelled as Rotom released a blue burst of radiant energy colliding into Empoleon as it pushed the penguin pokemon back a little ways but not enough to take it off its feet.

"Ha. Empoleon, let's try Water Pulse!" Then as Rotom was preparing its next assault, Empoleon lurched forward and emitted a blue burst of water aimed perfectly at Rotom.

In response, Rotom dove under the blast of water as it struck a nearby tree, almost leveling it. Then Empoleon fired more water pulses as some barely managed to get close to Rotom, but none would ever connect. I had Rotom use an Ominous Wind, but to my surprise, Empoleon was able to defend itself from the ghostly aura with its own metallic arms.

"Water Pulse!" Screamed Caroline as Empoleon released another burst of pulses, one of which hit Rotom square in the face.

"Rotom!" I yelled. Rotom lifted itself off the ground again, showing everyone that it had survived the worst of the blast.

"Rotom can you get closer to Empoleon then fire off another Discharge?" I told Rotom and Caroline prepped Empoleon on their retaliation plan. I couldn't hear but I figured out that Empoleon was running at Rotom who was flying at Empoleon, in turn. This was a huge mistake on her part.

"Use Discharge, now!" I yelled. Rotom released a great blue burst of radiant blue energy and this time the momentum had sent Empoleon backwards and caused it to lose its footing. Empoleon wasn't able to get back up.

"Are you freaking serious!" Caroline raged. She returned Empoleon into her pokeball as she stormed off the scene, while her nervous-looking boy friend followed her. Rotom and I rejoiced when we had won and I treated Rotom to a day of relaxation before we would head off to Oreburgh City. We found a small stay-in home that took us in. These were quite common in the Sinnoh Region and both Rotom and I were allowed into a cramped room where I put my backpack on the table. I opened it to explore its contents and found the poketch my father had left me. I opened it from the package and waited impatiently as it installed applications to get me started. After learning all the crooks and crannies of the device I slipped it comfortably around my wrist as I saw Rotom falling asleep.

I also climbed into bed as the words of Professor Rowan resonated through my skull: _I want you to meet new people and new pokemon on your journey in discovering yourself. I want your dreams to come to true, Aria because your dreams are my dreams. _His voice echoed in my brain as I thought hard about the upcoming gym that was in Oreburgh City and what I would have to face going in. I couldn't imagine the difficulty that this gym would pose but I knew after having Rotom with me for all these years we've learned a thing or two about battles. We've come out of some pretty tough instances and Rotom was once able to beat three trainers in a row each with three pokemon a piece because Rotom and I were so in synched. I knew it could be done but it would be one of the most arduous things we'll ever have to do. The last thing I remembered before dozing off myself, was Rotom's pleasant breaths as it slept on the ground next to my bed.


	4. Chapter 4 - The First Blooming Flower

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 4: The First Blooming Flower

The war in the Sinnoh Region started nineteen years ago, and two months before I was born. Everyone knew Team Galactic was on the rise after their defeat long ago. Their former leader Cyrus, a strange man who dyed his hair blue was banished to the Reverse World, the domain of the legendary Dragon pokemon, Giratina. Then sometime before I was born, the followers reestablished Team Galactic with qualified people occupying the commanding roles as Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These people, of course are nothing like the people who once filled these names years ago and were by far worse.

Saturn was the one who advised the new, mysterious leader of Team Galactic to declare war on the Pokemon Society, who were also building in ranks. The three commanders took the role of combat into their own hands, leaving their leader in the dark. Some people don't even believe that such a leader exists. Nonetheless, blood was shed one dark day when Team Galactic mobilized its forces in Snowpoint, Hearthome and Veilstone. Soon after, Pastoria fell to the Galactic Regime and after months of siege, Sunnyshore was conquered. Team Galactic also annexed the neutral city of Celestic Town and Solaceon Town soon after. The Pokemon League remained untouched by either side and has declared itself a "self-proclaimed association dedicated to peace for all humans and pokemon."

The Society was established soon after by Anti-Galactic separatists who sparked revolution in Canalave and Jubilife. Then the cities west of Mt. Coronet formed the Society Coalition. This included the smaller cities of Twinleaf and Sandgem. The Society also received the support from Oreburgh City, as well as the vast, complex cave systems underneath the city. Soon after, the Society was able to earn the favor of Eterna City as well as Floaroma Town, which included the surrounding territories that provided strategic military aid. The Fuego Ironworks and Valley Windworks were converted into fortified Society outposts.

The first interaction between the two sides took place after a whopping two years of military standoff. Commander Mars led a small battalion of Galactic grunts into the muddy territory halfway between Hearthome and Pastoria City. She laid waste to the Pokemon Mansion and Mr. Backlot VIII was murdered in his own home. This led to massive outrage from nearby Hearthome civilians who wanted justice for the murder. Things went horribly wrong went Mars blamed the secluded area of land of harboring Society spies. The truth behind it was that Mars wanted the wealth stored in the mansion and killed Mr. Backlot VIII for his money.

The Society was able to use the turmoil in Hearthome City to spark a counterrevolution, in hopes of ousting the Galactic occupation in the city. In response, Commander Jupiter threatened bombings of Jubilife City if any propaganda against Team Galactic was released. The unfortunate thing about the situation was that despite Jupiter's threat, Jubilife City released a campaign to install a revolution in Hearthome City. It was a disaster, people remained loyal to their Galactic Rulers while the commanders were furious.

Jupiter vowed vengeance for their insubordination and ordered their Honchcrow, Crobat, and hundreds other Flying pokemon to drop Galactic Bombs on Jubilife. After the first wave of bombs, half of the city was completely destroyed, but not a single person was killed. The Society was fast in mobilizing military personnel to evacuate the civilians.

It was actually one pokemon and one trainer who saved Jubilife City from total destruction. Lilian Peters, a young Society Lieutenant went into a hot zone with only her spirit and her Togekiss. Together they single-handedly took down all the Honchcrow, Crobat and Charizard who threatened Jubilife City. She was renowned in her skills in combat and her synchronization with her pokemon, Togekiss who helped her defeat waves of Galactic Grunts and flying pokemon. After she defeated them, she was declared a national hero and celebrated highly for her outstanding accomplishment. Nobody knows where Lilian went after her time in the war, but it was rumored that she found a home in Twinleaf Town and helped with the Twinleaf Festival each year. From the time Lilian Peters was a hero during the war, many other factors led to corruption and bloodshed in the war.

In later years, the hierarchy of Society leadership crumbled and fraudulent, oppressive dictators took the control of the war. The Galactic leadership hasn't changed much and have therefore remained the same in their regime. Several leaders of the Society have conducted secret paramilitary activities outside the eyes of several Society Sinnoh civilians and even the Society members themselves. An inner group of Society members were led by a vicious dictator who fought to destroy the fortress in Snowpoint City and to break the capital in Sunnyshore. He died of a heart attack, in which his side-kick General Ernest Barrington took over. This is about when I was 12. Ever since then, Barrington and the Galactic Commanders have unofficially signed and unofficial armistice until the two sides took a city from the opposing side. In the seven years that Barrington's regime loomed over Sinnoh, only the exchange of Eterna and Hearthome as well as some air raids from Team Galactic have ever been ordered. Every so often Team Galactic feels the need to remind the Society that they are still a force not to be trifled with.

Rotom and I were talking as we trekked through a small cave just before Oreburgh City, he was telling me not to be nervous as I talked strategy. The Oreburgh Gym Leader would definitely be a tough one to deal with since Rock-type pokemon generally have strong defenses. As we walked inside of a narrow cave I could faintly make out the shape of a nest of Zubat in one corner of the cave where the cavern walls met. A Meditite was also balancing on a stalagmite, attempting to meditate as well as concentrate on maintaining its composure.

"Do you know the leader?" Rotom asked me.

"No, but like I said we just have to keep calm and take down the pokemon one by one. Hopefully, the Leader doesn't have like twelve pokemon." I snorted. Rotom looked at me horrifyingly as if I were a ghost and he were human.

"Stop kidding around Aria it's just the two of us against legions of pokemon and trainers. We can't ridicule ourselves by joking around." Rotom said sternly. We got out of the cave into the cool summer air. I saw the rocky city of Oreburgh as it roamed with life. People were rummaging about, doing various jobs and I even saw a Machoke carrying several tool bags filled to the brim with useful tools as a man walking next to the pokemon held tool bags, too.

There was a building alongside the right of where we were walking and next to that was the Oreburgh Pokemon Market. The things you could buy at this market were insubstantial but as I entered the bazaar, quickly scanning the venders for Veronica's mom. I saw her as she sold a black flute to a customer and they handed over their money. She saw me and waited until the customer had left then she was ecstatic.

"Aria! Hi dear!" She beckoned to hug me. I saw the corners of her mouth rise as I greeted her back.

"How's Veronica?" I asked her solemnly. She told me that Veronica had thrown a tantrum in their house after she refused to let her go. She was grounded and that case was closed.

"I threatened to take away Donna and she stopped screaming." She told me. That made me angry. People shouldn't threaten to take away pokemon from anyone. That's something Team Galactic does.

"Gotta do what you gotta do," I said to her, denouncing the words in my head. Rotom was flying near me staring down at Ms. Hale as she eyed him dauntingly. After a moment of silence she reopened her mouth to spew her words again.

"So, Aria, why have you come to Oreburgh?" She looked for an excuse to start up the conversation again. I told her I was here to challenge the Gym and she told me about the rocky interior of the gym.

"That's really cool, Ms. Hale. I think I better see if I can register to battle." I said as I left and Rotom eyed me weirdly.

"She's really awkward." Rotom said flatly.

"I know. I can't believe she didn't let Veronica come with me. That really pissed me off and did you hear when she said she threatened to take Donna away from her? That infuriates me when people have their pokemon taken away from them." I said angrily.

"You won't have to worry about that. I'm going to be here right by your side forever." Rotom changed the mood. I smiled at him as we walked passed brown-roofed houses and a museum. We turned a corner and followed the sidewalk until it ended at a pokemon center and further down it looked like a mine. Rotom and I went to explore the site where we discovered an awful lot of Machop carrying around coal to be processed on a tall conveyor belt above the site. The conveyor belt swooped low enough for the Machop to place their processed coal onto it and it lurched forward after a moment. The conveyor belt also extended downward into the mine's deeper reaches. Rotom and I followed it down, avoiding the casual eyes of the trainers who didn't bat an eye.

In the mine we discovered the conveyor belt had gone deeper and ended at another door at the bottom of the mineshaft.

"How big is this cave?" Rotom asked looking around. This time there was no sign of Zubat flying around and instead we saw more Machop in the brightly lit cave. We walked a ways down until we hit a giant lump of coal. It was humongous and occupied well over half of the space in the chamber. We were in awe at the size of the relic as a man came up to us with his Machop.

"Why exactly did you come down here?" The man asked. His Machop looked at my Rotom who buzzed when Machop came too close. I told him that I was just exploring and I was looking for the Oreburgh City Gym.

"The Gym is in the center of town, but before you go there you'll wanna talk to the guy that's on the reverse side of the colossal coal." He said pointing to the coal in the dim light. Rotom and I creeped around the rock where only one small light lit up the other side of the rock. There was an old man there chipping away at the coal. Two Cranidos followed him with a basket collecting the coal. When the basket reached its limit, the Cranidos scampered off passing Rotom and I without ever noticing us.

"Excuse me?" I yelled to the man who stopped working to look up at me.

"Hello there, come closer I'm a little bit hard on hearing." The old man beckoned to me.

"Hi, I'm Aria and I was wondering if you could tell me where the Oreburgh Gym leader is?" His eyes smiled at you with an archaic resemblance of previous ancestors.

"He's the handsome devil working on splitting this huge hunk of rock into bits for the Cranidos." He flailed his arms enthusiastically. This old guy needed his meds right now. And I wasn't the person to deliver them no sir.

"So you?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Well I'm here because I wish to battle your pokemon in a Gym Battle." He looked marveled.

"Wow. That brings back memories." The old man's eyes wandered to the ceiling as he looked like he was about to recite an uninteresting anecdote. He almost fell asleep while standing there, talking to me.

"Sorry. It's just you're the first challenger since the new wave of challengers was released. I haven't fought a Gym Battle in about twenty years." As he finished that statement my mouth dropped. I wasn't even twenty yet and all this time I've been alive this guy hasn't had a Gym Battle yet. Did that mean that other Gym Leaders haven't had a gym battle either?

"There's more coming." I assured him.

"Wow!" The old Gym Leader's life returned to his eyes.

"Well I'm Wilbur Underwood and I'll be waiting in the pokemon gym! Gotta sweep up them 'ol cobwebs so ya don't choke on the spiders! Haha!" Wilbur ran off. Rotom and I were standing alone in the dim light and silence surrounded us until the sound of a Machop punching the walls was heard around the corner. Rotom looked at me blankly as if he had just witnessed something embarrassing happen to someone.

We walked out of the mine and my eyes were once again transfixed on the conveyor belt moving coal around. The pokemon center was lifeless as we passed by its rusty red walls and I saw the pokemon gym, also rusty, in the dead center of town. I wandered inside of the gym and saw a familiar body inside dusting the entirety of the gym.

"Oh, hello. I'll be ready in a gosh darn moment. Lemme get these cobwebs." Wilbur said dusting the walls of the desolate arena. He relinquished the broom on the floor after it looked satisfactory and walked, but it looked more like he limped, to me.

"I will have a battle with you and maybe-" He was cut off as his two Cranidos ran into the gym and snarled at me as they stood in front of Wilbur.

"Bess and Moe you will hush now." Wilbur said flailing again. The Cranidos stepped aside and watched us carefully. Wilbur laughed and chuckled, then proceeded to slap his right knee. I hadn't realized that I was only three cities over from my home town and people like this actually existed.

"This isn't nearly what I expected it to look like." I told him. He laughed even harder, slapping his knees every now and then. "Are you gonna fight or criticize the view, lady?" He was still laughing.

"C'mon let's do this already, Wilbur." I said nervously with a little angst in my voice.

"Um. Yes. Alright. Bess, hows about you go on into the ring and wrestle with that lady's pokemons?" Wilbur said calming down.

Wilbur and I stepped into the arena depicted by white lines on the floor of the gym. I stepped back so Rotom could stand before me and stare down at Bess the Cranidos. Bess was huffing and stomping her feet on the ground and managed to shake it briefly before Wilbur heehawed.

"Alrighty now, girl you ready?" He called out to me.

"Yeah." I yelled flatly.

"Oh! I almost forgot to say this!" Wilbur started again. I sighed. "I'll be using three pokemon here today, miss Aria. You can substitute for any pokemon you please while I gotta stick with what I've got. You can only use a total of three pokemon in this battle and once you've gone through them all, you're out!" Wilbur finished his little speech. It was customary for the Gym leaders to allow the challengers to start the battle but I guess Wilbur forgot about that and ordered Cranidos to use Take Down. I was confused why he ordered a Normal-type attack against a Ghost pokemon, when I quickly made a judgment to retaliate. I figured it was a trick and had Rotom use a Discharge attack. The blue thunder left Rotom's body and struck Cranidos. It was paralyzed from just that one attack.

"Bess? You good? What about a Rock Throw, eh?" Wilbur said. Bess picked up a giant rock with her stubby little arms and thrust it rapidly at Rotom. Rotom managed to dodge the ferocious rock as it smashed into the ground causing the ground beneath us to shake. Rotom held its ground from the spot where it was levitating and awaited my next command.

"What about an Ominous Wind?" I yelled to Rotom who emitted a huge wind-gust of ghostly energy that hit Bess before she could dodge it. The paralysis had caused her to slow down significantly and the Ominous Wind had also caused her to faint. Wilbur Underwood pulled out what looked like an ancient pokeball and returned Bess to it.

"Good job, partner. You done did good." He said kissing the sphere and putting it in his raggedy pocket. I noticed he was wearing very worn out clothes that I couldn't make out from before in the dark. Wilbur wore very worn out clothes and caused him to look as though he were a vagabond. He wasn't wearing any shoes and the grime between his toes glistened in the bright gym.

"Nice, Rotom." I rambled to the pokemon fluttering in the air.

"Well, missy I got me here another pokemon for ya." Wilbur said throwing another pokeball at us. Rotom and I watched as a Rhyhorn emerged from the ball and huffed at us upon its entrance.

"This is my partner, Jessie. He's hungry for some battlin' and I guess you're gonna be his meal." Wilbur cackled. "Jessie, use Rock Slide!" Then Wilbur's Rhyhorn stomped on the ground and a nearby pile of rocks began to tumble down around us. At first we backed away but I quickly realized Wilbur was just distracting us.

"Bite!" Jessie rammed into Rotom biting him. Rotom escaped after being bit by the pokemon's nasty attack.

"Are you okay?!" I called at my pokemon. He floated miserably in the air. Bite is a Dark-type attack that several pokemon can learn. Dark pokemon have the advantage over Rotom because Ghost pokemon are weak to Dark and Ghost attacks.

"I'm good." Rotom looked at me, weakly. The attack must've caused some serious injury and I thought about stopping the battle, but Rotom looked at me intently as though he expected a command from me.

"Um. I think Jessie is also a Ground-type so electric attacks won't work." I said and Rotom nodded at me.

"Are you gonna just stand there?" Wilbur yelled.

Ignoring him, I asked Rotom to create an Ominous Wind to thrash the Rhyhorn around a bit but Jessie just stood his ground and endured the worst of the attack. However, it wasn't enough to totally waste him. Wilbur slapped one knee and told Jessie to use another Rock Slide. This time it wasn't a distraction and a new pile of rocks struck down at us, some even hitting Rotom.

"Dodge them Rotom!" I yelled quickly, anticipating another attack. Jessie was now charging at Rotom, gearing up to Bite again and I made the decision to use another Ominous Wind. Jessie was thrashed back and forth as the wind struck him from all angles. The tormenting storm ended abruptly, and revealed that Jessie had fainted.

"No!" Wilbur stomped his foot as he retreated Jessie back into his ball. "Good job, partner."

"Well, Aria. You sure have bested me today. But before you get all mighty, I got one more pokemon for ya to face." Wilbur smiled cunningly and threw his last ball to the arena. The white light revealed a silhouette, then a nightmarish pokemon appeared before us. A looming pokemon stood in the ground of the arena.

"This tough gal over here is my best friend, Carmela." Wilbur said. I zoned him out as I stood there in awe as a terrifying Tyranitar stood face to face to Rotom.

"Wow. That's one hella scary monster." I said reclining into myself. I didn't even know what were going to do. I hadn't ever seen this pokemon before and it looked like the bane of all my nightmares. Carmela stood there eying Rotom darkly as she awaited her master's commands.

"Are we ready to go again?" Wilbur said. I was scared, and in awe as Carmela was able to command her colossal body to move. She walked a ways towards the center of the arena where Rotom was.

"Back away Rotom. She's extremely powerful." I said plotting our next move. I wasn't sure how we'd get out of this or even if we'd get out of it at all. Rotom had already fought Cranidos and Rhyhorn, which had both worn him down and now he was to fight against this monster.

"Sandstorm!" Wilbur called. The pokemon crouched a bit and emitted sand from holes in its body. A massive sandstorm occupied the Gym now and it was difficult to see with all of the sand flying into my face. I wiped some off my brow and saw Rotom looking frantically in all directions.

"Rotom!" I called to him. He saw me and hovered over. We couldn't see past the sandstorm and in turn couldn't see Wilbur and Carmela. I stood with my back in the direction of the sandstorm as I faced Rotom.

"What are we going to do?" He asked me. I wasn't exactly sure on this one either.

"We'll have to try everything we've got. How do you feel about the move Confuse Ray?" I asked. Confuse Ray was a move I tried teaching Rotom how to perform but he had a hard time trying to learn it. Discharge was by far tougher than that, but Confuse Ray was an important Ghost-type move I felt Rotom could learn.

"Besides what we've got done in training, I can manage that." Rotom said referring to the gassy ball of ooze that emanated pathetically towards Donna when we trained a long time ago. I remember Donna, Veronica and me laughing the first time Rotom used it because it was so pitiful. He was far from done from training to perfect the move, but it seemed no matter how hard he tried the ooze ball was the only thing he could make. I thought about the Ghost move Shadow Ball but from our experience with floating orbs I decided not to bother.

"Anything you can make, try it. I know this storm is unbearable but we don't have a lot of options. You know you can't take that many hits from that thing." I said referring to Carmela. I'm pretty sure if Rotom get's hit with even one big hit from her, he's gone.

"I'll make sure not to stifle in this storm."

"Behind you!" Rotom said hurriedly. I turned around, getting sand in my face as I could make out the silhouette of Carmela charging at us from inside of the storm.

"Rotom, she's coming at us. We need to stop her from increasing momentum and taking you down."

"Then what, a Discharge?" He suggested. I nodded quickly and Rotom released a dazzling blue burst of energy that hit its mark perfectly. Carmela seemed to slow down and huff but continued shortly thereafter. I could make out of her body features and saw terrifying claws and ragged edges on her body. She sliced at Rotom cutting him sharply. Rotom flinched and as she went in for another, Rotom moved away. Going deeper into the storm, away from us. Carmela didn't look at me and charged into the storm. The last thing I saw before she was cloaked in the sandy mess was her slashing at an object floating in the air.

"Rotom!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, which began filling up with sand causing me to cough. I coughed again and yelled after him.

"If you can hear my voice, use Confuse Ray! Then try Ominous Wind!" I yelled, unsure if Rotom had even heard my request in the midst of this awful storm. I couldn't see so I walked a little deeper into the storm, unsure whether I would run into Wilbur or not. The entire Gym around me was cloaked in this lung-filling sandstorm and I could hear the faint noises of grunting. It couldn't have been from Rotom and I could focus on a sandy silhouette still slashing at Rotom. When I got closer I realized Rotom wasn't there and Carmela was just slashing at the storm itself. Upon further realization I saw Wilbur trying to coax Carmela out of her confusion as she slashed uncontrollably through the sandy air.

Rotom buzzed overhead and descended to my shoulder level where he was exhaling hard.

"She got me pretty bad. I took two hits from claws before the confusion kicked in." Rotom said faintly. "But I must hurry, or the effects of the confusion will wear off."

"Did you try Ominous Wind?" I asked.

"That's not effective against Dark-types, Aria." Rotom retorted. And I had an idea that might make the storm regress a little.

"Please use Ominous Wind right here and blow this storm away." I said, hope brimming in my eyes and voice. Rotom emitted a large gust of dark wind that blew sand and dark energy around. The energy was just absorbed into the storm itself, but I noticed that the direction of the flying sand had shifted to the opposite direction, so now sand was flying from behind me.

"Carmela! Snap out of it! Use Crunch!" Wilbur ran around frantically, coughing from the sandstorm. Carmela stopped slashing the air and looked for Rotom who was preparing for another Discharge. She was already paralyzed from the first Discharge and still confused, but was able to sniff Rotom out as she pushed the electric attack away. It did, however cause her to lose footing on one enormous foot and she took a knee to the sandy ground.

"Discharge!" I yelled. Rotom pinpointed the blue pattern on the pokemon and used that as a guide for its next attack. Carmela had regained her footing and charged at Rotom with the intent that she would defeat him, here and now. Rotom floated rapidly at her in the storm as sand flew by him and smacked across Carmela's rocky body. The Discharge was expelled from Rotom's small body as it struck the blue scaly plate on Carmela's stomach. She couldn't keep her footing and was sent backwards by the force of the sandstorm in her direction onto her back, unable to stand.

"Carmela!" Wilbur said as the storm subsided and I could once again see the old, worn Gym Leader and his gym. He was hopping up and down as Carmela lie there limp and unable to fight. She was returned back into his pokeball and Rotom collapsed from exhaustion. I pulled out Rotom's pokeball, which I rarely use and returned him inside his foreign home.

"Wow girl you sure do have fight in you. I thought my trump was gonna send your Ghost flying out and back to Jubilife City but you were amazing!" Wilbur said, flailing arms and everything. He had a eureka moment and ran off the arena and in through a door. He reemerged with a sparkling object he identified to me as a badge.

"For your outstanding performance here." He said placing the Badge gently in my palm. I was breathless, speechless, too because of my achievement, but mostly breathless. And a little nauseous.

"With this Gym Badge, I'm counting on your face appearing on everyone's screens as you beat the rest of the Pokemon League!" Wilbur said smiling, some teeth missing. He shook my hand and I was still taking this glorious moment in.

"I don't even know how were able to beat Carmela." I blurted.

"Oh, don't you say anything! You and Rotom are a hardworking team. I might be an old bag of bones but even I could see that. You and Rotom showed excellence in your battlefield skills and my job is done." Wilbur said, ecstatically. He ran out of the Gym, leaving me there as if he had won instead and as I walked out I could catch a glimpse of him as he ran into the pokemon center.

Nurse Joy handed me my lone pokeball and I immediately released Rotom from the orb. He had his energy returned to him and he smiled at me. We walked out of the center and had a brief moment to cheer for our victory.

"I can't believe you took down that monster!" I said cheering.  
"You helped, too." Rotom said, pausing the celebration. "You're expertise in Ghost pokemon is what allowed us to secure victory. I'm really proud of you, Aria." Rotom said. I blushed and smiled at him, sweetly. I looked at the badge still in my hand and Rotom floated closer to get a better look at it. It was a metallic coal badge and I placed it carefully into my badge case. According to the direction of the Nurse Joy back at center, our next destination was up through Floaroma Town and into Eterna City. She warned me not to cross into that area because it was infested with Team Galactic, but I told her I had papers granting me entrance into the city.

Rotom and I walked back through the cave from Oreburgh City talking about our next goal. The Eterna City Gym Leader was a Grass-type user and Rotom told me his Discharge would be less effective on Grass-pokemon.

"That means you and I need to train and become stronger as well as smarter." Rotom said to me. I nodded and we kept walking. I was starting to feel the effects of fatigue as we exited the small cave.

In an open field that contained park benches and a playground, I saw two children playing with a Delcatty as it ran around them. A woman who I identified to be their mother was watching the kids play and sitting next to her was a Houndoom that watched the kids protectively, snarling at us when we walked by. I told Rotom we might as well check by the stay-in home we'd encountered before, and Rotom couldn't complain as the sun was beginning to go down.

That night I had amazing dreams and thought about racing back to Twinleaf to show my Dad the badge. It felt like I could accomplish anything I ever imagined for and more. Rotom and I snoozed quickly and in a room, far away from Jubilife in a dark blue building a conversation was taking place. One that would change the track of my journey in times to come.

"Don't be daft, Arnold, you can't expect the Society to go quietly if we launch some bombs at them again." A staunch brown-haired woman spat at a Galactic Grunt who voiced his opinion on taking back Hearthome.

"Madame Mars, your excellency, you do realize that our spy is still living in that city." Spoke Hadron, the head scientist for the Galactic Regime. He wore light purple glasses covering his large nose and wore a white lab coat. His ancient eyes bore into the young commander as she turned her head to face the scientist, as though she had a ball on her nose that she was balancing.

"I'm already handling it. My intel reported that the Society is conducting a field test on Mt. Coronet in about a week. Then, I'm sending my very own Skarmory to deal with the spy issue. Don't worry your big nose in my business again, Hadron." She said coldly, walking out of the room in her black hunting shoes. She didn't bat an eye when two Grunts almost walked into her, and they stopped and saluted as she stormed out of the conference room.

After leaving the building with shreds of her temper she found a man standing in wait for her next to a black, expensive-looking car. There she got into a car that drove from the Veilstone Galactic headquarters to the Galactic Advanced War Studies Facility in Sunnyshore.

Aria snored as Commander Mars walked past the P.O.W cells in the Galactic Headquarters Capital. She passed by several starving Society inmates who she glided past and didn't utter a word, when a student who was imprisoned from Sunnyshore University was catcalling her. She grabbed the shirt of the guy and stared him cold in the eyes through the bars of his cell.

"I'll rip off your nails, Metis, one by one and stick them into your eyes if you ever talk to me like that again." She said pushing him to the ground as she kept walking. Her scene had caused silence to run through the rest of the cells as she crossed into a Galactic office room. All the grunts and scientists rose up when she walked in, saluting her, as she made her way through the maze of the work stations. Her long, braided brown hair was bouncing when she turned a sharp corner and faced a man whom knew her.

"Everyone else get back to work!" She ordered. All the grunts and scientists returned to their jobs while some continued looking at the Commander and the young man she knew.

"Glad of you to come, Mars." The man said walking as she walked beside him down the row of working grunts. Her companion opened a door at the head of the office and led them down a long hallway.

"Jupiter said what you found was game-changing Brigham, but she couldn't tell me what it was so I was sent here to see it." Mars said to the man.

"Well, we were exploring the ruins of Sendoff Springs when a Grunt stumbled on the relic." Brigham said as they turned a corner into a lab where a scientist was pouring acidic material on a Ratatta. She didn't look at him, when he looked at her and kept talking. Then, when he told her it belonged to a legendary pokemon it caught her attention and she looked intently at him.

"We've been coming up dead-ended on the Adamant and Lustrous orbs but wait till you see this." Brigham said coming up to a vault. He and another security guard walked up to two keypads on the walls of the safe and swiped their identification cards. Then, they both typed in two passwords needed to open the safe as the door opened. Mars and Brigham walked inside and Mars was in awe when she saw the artifact.

"What is this rock?" She said touching the marvel. Brigham watched her carefully as she inspected the gold colored stone.

"It is the sacred stone of the legendary pokemon, Giratina." Mars's interest diminished.

"What are we supposed to do with this rock?" She demanded. Brigham was stunned for a moment.  
"Well, if we take it to the Turnback Cave we might be able to find some clues on how to summon it." Mars looked at him insultingly.

"You're gonna tell me that you can summon Giratina, the beast that roams the universe opposite in everything to our very own?" She asked him, intimidatingly.

Mars walked out of the laboratory holding a communicator to her ear. She walked out the front desk when Jupiter answered the call far away in Pastoria City. They exchanged information and exchanged some useful things. Mars was oblivious to the rain that started pouring when she departed from the research facility. She picked up her pace as she walked towards her black car. The chauffeur driving it was standing in the rain with an umbrella as she neared him. The call with Jupiter was over and she slipped it back into her pocket as she stepped and crushed a blooming daffodil screaming for water. It lay mangled in the rain as Mars drove off in her car and the door to a safe was closed shut somewhere.


	5. Chapter 5 - And She Walked to the Bridge

A Maiden's Journey

Chapter 5: She Walked to the Bridge

Waking up that morning was a pain in the ass for several reasons. I was sore. When I realized it was everywhere, I also realized that being a girl, meant things were twice as bad as they really were. Rotom was also sore. He couldn't even levitate for five seconds before relocating onto the ground and making friends with the dust bunnies. Our first Gym battle had gone almost perfectly, yet we are in Jubilife, miserable.

After twenty minutes of sleeping in, I realized we'd end up sleeping the whole day away, so I got up and threw my pillow at Rotom.

"Don't do this to me right now. I'm sad and tired." Rotom said sarcastically.

"Aren't we all." I stated before I rolled my eyes and went to our tiny bathroom. The mirror on the wall was probably originally made for some nasty fun house because my augmented reflection made me look really fat. I'm not at all fat, I swear. I may have put on a little weight my junior year in high school but that was when this new ice cream place opened for kids and pokemon and it was right next door. I digressed.

"You do realize were going to Eterna City? That's Galactic Sinnoh. So get over yourself and lets get ready to go. I'm not waiting for you." I yelled at my swelling reflection.

"Don't have a stroke we just got through our first Gym Battle. Can we please take it easy?" Rotom said and yawned.

"If you're gonna be a big baby, then I'll treat you like one. I'll walk to Eterna City by myself and you can sleep all day in your pokeball." I said as Rotom scowled. "So what's it gonna be?" I smiled. Rotom, grumbling, floated over to the bathroom and looked at me murderously.

"Fine. I'll deal. But no battles."

"Thanks." I turned to him smiling. We were eye to eye and I could have sworn he would've used an attack on me for being so oppressive. I'm not oppressive. He can just be a lazy Slaking once in a while but I'm the same.

I looked through my backpack to make sure everything was in its place and we set out in the opposite direction of my town. I thought about going to see my Dad but it would resurface my home sickness I've been feeling every minute of this trip. I've lived my entire life surrounded by walls and buildings. Being out in the open is so refreshing I can't help but think I'll be traveling for the rest of my life. But that doesn't mean I don't miss my Dad. He's done everything for me so I can have a life. I just want to make him proud and this journey is my way of giving back to him.

Rotom and I wandered through the northern side of Jubilife City, passing by hotels and casinos with bright flashing lights that had a Pikachu bathing in money. I saw a Jynx and its elegantly dressed trainer walk out of the hotel and cross the street. A car passed by them and an Umbreon shook its head out and peered at the us. Its owner parked the car on the side of the road and got out of the car.

The man, dressed in a trench coat in the summer breeze, opened the door and his Umbreon hopped out of the car and followed him, but this Umbreon looked like it was colored on with a blue crayon. I'd never seen an Umbreon like this before. Rotom and I passed the two as the oddly colored Umbreon's trainer opened the trunk of his car and pulled out several file folders and documents. While he was rummaging through his folders, his Umbreon was watching us and Rotom returned the curious stare to the Umbreon as we walked further away from the two.

The blue colored Umbreon scampered after Rotom and I, without us noticing and without its trainer noticing, either. We turned a corner when I saw out of the corner of my eye a black patch that hadn't been there before. I turned around and there was nothing there, but when Rotom and I turned around we saw the Umbreon, sitting on the sidewalk looking at us. It was wagging its tail.

"What the hell!" Rotom yelled. He floated over to the Umbreon who kept looking at Rotom and wouldn't budge.

"What are you doing little guy?" I said petting the pokemon and it was as though it was purring as I scratched it behind the ears. Rotom was looking at the Umbreon when it became startled.

"What are you doing?" A voice startled me from behind. I quickly turned around to face the tall man in a trench coat, whose face held a touch of displease.

"Why did you take my pokemon." He repeated his question.

"It followed me, sorry. I promise I didn't take it and we were planning on giving it back to you." I said smiling. As I was saying this, the Umbreon rose up from where it was sitting and dusted off its rump, before walking between my legs and nudging my ankles with its soft head.

"Wow." The trainer chuckled. "She must really like you." He said pointing to the pokemon.

"I'm Aria and this is my best friend, Rotom. Your Umbreon is so precious. And the color of it. I've never seen anything like it." I said crouching to pick the Umbreon up and handing her to her master.

"My name is Looker." The man in the trench coat said. "I work for the Society Police force in Jubilife."

"Your name's 'Looker'?" I asked incredulously.

"Castor is my first name. Looker is my undercover name when I'm working. You don't strike me as someone who works for Team Galactic so I don't mind sharing that with you." He smiled brightly in the cool summer air.

"Sorry, but aren't you hot in that coat?" He looked down at his coat then shook his head at me. The whole time Rotom and Umbreon were having a staring contest. Umbreon was winning.

"Where is a young woman and her pokemon going on such a beautiful day, like this?" Castor said at me, noticing the pokemon playing with each other. He pet Umbreon's head and she purred and rested in his arms. I explained the Sinnoh League to him and showed him my Coal Badge to which he congratulated me on my accomplishment.

"Wow. Old man Wilbur Underwood finally climbed out of the dust and had a Gym Battle. I knew him when he was a lot younger and faster, when I was a kid." Castor said looking at me.

"But I have to leave you." He said suddenly. "I have a job remember." He said and I noticed we were standing on the corner of a building that a huge _Society_ symbol on the wall. It was the Jubilife Police Station and I guess Looker was an officer after all. We said our good-byes but there was something different about him. Something magnetic that I couldn't quite figure out.

I dismissed him from my thoughts and we continued trekking through the city until we hit the city limits around an hour after walking around. We had stopped by for an ice cream cone and looked inside at a clothing boutique that sported a plastic Glameow wearing what looked like uncomfortable clothes.

We reached the end of the city towards the north end and saw a huge patch of grass ahead of a white picket fence. Three trainers who looked like they were freshmen in high school were battling with their pokemon and Rotom saw me looking at them.  
"Don't even think about it." He said and I just kept on walking. The trainers saw me walking, but where transfixed with Rotom. One of the little boys wearing a baseball cap pointed at Rotom in awe as he hovered by.

"They're pointing at me." Rotom said flatly. I sneaked a peek at the kids and saw them watching us as we walked by. I wondered what could cause an Umbreon to change colors. Looker's Umbreon was so affectionate and cute I couldn't resist holding her in my arms when she had followed us. I could tell she was interested in Rotom or me and I remembered her soft skull bone as my fingers stroked the warm fur on her dark coat.

We continued walking and passed through a small cavern before ascending more walkways until we reached a large view of the scene we had just come out of. I saw the kids from before running around in the field as a Beautifly and Dustox were flying around them. Another kid who looked older than the kids was taunting them from the picket fence. It really sickened me how there's so much bullying in this world that I stopped where I was walking to make sure the kids were safe. One of the girls went up to the big kid and yelled at him. He threw a pokeball and released a Hitmonchan. The girl's Beautifly flew before her as if to defend her body from an attack. I heard the boy and girl quarreling and the boy allowed his Hitmonchan to use a Low Kick on Beautifly but it took the hit and kept flying. That pokemon in particular was really resistant to Fighting-type attacks.

"Aerial Ace!" I heard the female trainer yell as her Beautifly zoomed through the air really fast and struck Hitmonchan forcing him to faint. The boy returned his fallen pokemon and ran off screaming into Jubilife City. I walked on with a solemn expression of content.

We walked through some trees and the vegetation was getting thicker as I saw two Weedle, one following the other into a patch of grass. Rotom and I walked through the narrow vegetation and were met with a beautiful flower patch. It was a huge field of multicolored flowers that bloomed magnificently in the cool summer breeze. They all faced the flowering city of Floaroma and Rotom and I were happy to have made it here.

The sun was shining bright as we crisscrossed our way into the pokemon center, avoiding any flowers that would happen to be in our way. Rotom spotted the town map and I opened it, revealing the location of Floaroma Town and the next place we'd have to trek toward. Eterna City and my second Gym Battle were within reach and I shivered. I could feel the excitement swell within my body. Rotom was looking at the map when he looked up suddenly to see a Gengar and its trainer walk from Nurse Joy's desk. The trainer, who was a darkly dressed girl with pink highlights in her hair and a nose ring, walked to the door without uttering a word or looking back at us. Her Gengar, though turned back to look at me with its ferocious smile and left the building without a seconds hesitation.

As we placed the map back, a man approached us carrying a pokeball in his hands looking frantically for someone. He looked to me, holding the ball and proceeded to tell me that a female trainer who walked with her Gengar had forgotten its pokeball. I told him I'd take it to her and he handed me the ball. We ran out of the center looking for the two and I saw them walking deeper into the city. I ran after them, shouting and only when her Gengar turned around did she.

"Hey." I said puffing air. "You forgot your pokeball back at the center." I said extending my hand to reveal a familiar pokeball. The girl flinched and looked into her black bag. She sighed and grabbed the ball from my hands and stuffed it into her bag before turning around and walking away.

After a second of shock, I ran after her and stopped in front her.

"You know, normal people thank others for doing them a favor." I said never letting my eyes wander from her purple eye shadow. She looked blankly into my face as her Gengar smiled menacingly at Rotom and me. Then it waddled up to us and pointed at Rotom. The Gengar looked back at his trainer who in turn looked at Rotom.

"My Gengar wants to fight your pokemon." She said, with power and boredom in her voice.

"I want a thank you, first." I said to her.

"Thanks. Now can we get this over with? I'm due back somewhere." She said to me. I looked her dead in the eyes as her Gengar was running around, staring at Rotom who in turn was reciprocating an icy stare. Rotom and I followed the girl and her Gengar to the city limits of Floaroma, which was very small, and we distanced ourselves as our Ghost pokemon took the stage.

"Are you ready, Rotom?" After yawning Rotom bounced up and down frantically, as if his laziness had vanished. The girl asked if her Gengar was prepared to win and it jumped up and down as well as and held its small dark fists up in excitement.

"Gengar, use Shadow Ball." The gothic girl said as the Gengar focused its energy into creating a dark ball of ghostly energy. It was then fired at Rotom who was barely able to get out of the way of the attack.

"Discharge!" I yelled. Rotom floated closer at Gengar before releasing a blue burst of explosive energy.

"Fly, Gengar!" The trainer said as her Gengar floated into the air, with no windy breezes in sight.

"What?" I blurted, worriedly. I didn't even realize Gengar could levitate. The blue energy lashed underneath Gengar as it laughed in its levitating state. It fired off more Shadow Balls as Rotom dodged all of them. After Gengar's attack ceased, it flew in closer and fired one more which struck Rotom with break-taking velocity, sending him to crashing to the ground.

"Rotom!" I screamed as Rotom had trouble getting back up. The blast was double effective since Ghost pokemon are weak to Ghost attacks. We all watched as Rotom couldn't float back up and lay there unable to fight.

"Wow." The girl turned around, without ever giving her name. She wandered over to the bridge which forked from the path leading to the Society fortress: The Valley Windworks. I collected Rotom in my arms and ran back into Floaroma Town. I hadn't even realized Rotom wasn't intangible. I almost dropped him out of shock when I realized I could touch him.

Nurse Joy took Rotom's pokeball from me as she walked carefully into her room where I could hear two Blissey arguing over how to medicate a sick Girafarig. The pokemon sat on the ground and looked super pale as the two Blissey quarreled. I noticed that there were two trainers sitting in the corner of the room, waiting for their pokemon, possibly the Girafarig, to get better. A Pachirisu was sitting quietly, waiting on the ground before them as the two looked down at the pokemon.

The nurse checked on the Girafarig and took its temperature after handing Rotom's pokeball back. She told me that he should be okay to fight again and I thanked her before turning around. Then I turned back.

"What's wrong with that Girafarig," I said looking over the counter and into her infirmary. She told me the pokemon had a nasty burn that got infected and they didn't know how to treat the burn. She also said that the burn was causing the pokemon so much discomfort that it became ill from the pain. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a familiar device that Rotom could have identified. It was a burn relief spray bottle that I asked the nurse to try. She observed the bottle and sniffed the contents before thanking me and walking back into the room.

"You two can go take a break." She said to the two Blissey and they walked out of the room and beneath a locked flap separating the trainers from the pokemon center staff. They purposely shoved each other as they went into the opposite corner of the room and sat down on the carpet back to back. After a moment they reconciled and played with blocks meant for small children. I wondered what is was like to be a Blissey who worked day and night healing pokemon and helping people and I was simply enamored with the idea.

Nurse Joy came back ecstatic as she walked over to the counter. Girafarig out from the side of the counter and the two trainers stood up, walking over to the counter as their Pachirisu squeaked awake and hopped after them.

"Your spray bottle fixed the burn and provided immediate relief! Where on earth did you get this bottle?" The nurse asked me as the two trainers whose expressions changed from somber to elated in less than a second. Both of the boys watched me with their pokemon as I explained the same situation with my Rotom. They laughed when the healthy Girafarig licked its trainer with joy and they went up to me and shook my hand.

"Thank you so much."

"You're a life saver."

"Haha. It's really no problem. Thank my Dad," I said smiling. As they walked out of the pokemon center petting the healthy Girafarig, I released Rotom from its ball and it looked all around the room and saw the two Blissey playing as well as Nurse Joy, who was arranging papers on her counter. I walked up to the counter and waited a second for her to notice me.

"Yes?" She said looking up at me.

"Hi, I was wondering if you saw a girl dressed in black clothes, purple eyeshadow, she had a Gengar...?" I asked. The nurse nodded and I asked what her name was.

"She didn't give her name, dear." The nurse said looking at me, innocently. "But when I asked how her day was she said, depressing and uneventful like always." I nodded at this information.

"Did she say where she was going?" I inquired. The nurse shook her head and with that, I left the center. Rotom and I walked over and remembered the exact spot where we previously had our battle as we left the city limits for the second time.

"I just don't understand how that Shadow Ball had so much power." Rotom said aloud.

"Some trainers are just more powerful and train their pokemon better. Don't worry we'll train harder, then maybe we'll rematch that girl and you'll win." I said looking down.

"Yeah, hopefully. But where are we off to next, Aria?" Rotom floated alongside me and looking at me when he finished his question. I kept looking down because I knew I had something on my mind and ignored his question, temporarily.

"We're off to the Eterna City forest, which is just before the real city. Then we're officially in Galactic Sinnoh." I told him. He nodded and looked onward as we crossed the same bridge the goth girl walked over.

"How is it that I can touch you?" I said, randomly. The question stunned Rotom and he stopped floating to stare at me with a deep concern infecting his face.

"You can." Rotom said still looking at me.

"But you're a Ghost pokemon. And ghosts are intangible." I said, confused.

"Ghost pokemon are intangible, yes, but some of us are able to control when we are and aren't tangible and usually our partners are allowed to touch us. If someone like your friends wanted to pet me I'd change my composition to be intangible again." Rotom explained.

"But why the trouble?" I asked, innocently. We resumed walking (and levitating on Rotom's part) to Eterna City as Rotom explained the phenomenon.

"It's a perk to being a ghost. Some Ghost pokemon are actually solid-bodied and are tangible their whole lives. Some examples of this are the Duskull evolutionary line, Sableye, Spiritomb, the legendary Dragon pokemon Giratina..." Rotom listed some more names. I went up to hug him and could feel the buzzing body of the Electric-Ghost pokemon as it nestled itself in my arms.

"I can't believe I can hold you." I said, happily.

After sharing our little moment of intimacy, we cascaded through rocky terrain and saw a girl dressed like a little girl scout, training her Staravia as she stood behind a Squirtle whom she ordered to fire bubblebeams at. The Staravia flew through every single beam and perched itself on a rock nearby. She walked over to the bird pokemon and pet it on the head as she returned it to the pokeball and saw me walking above on the ledge.

"Hey, trainer!" She said from down below. Rotom and I stopped walking as she cupped her hands around her mouth and challenged us to a battle. I quickly walked down the rocky steps to the grass ground several feet away from her. I was looking to redeem Rotom in a battle for our earlier defeat.

"My Staravia wants to battle your pokemon!" She yelled as she threw her pokeball and released the Staravia from before. It flew freely in the air as Rotom analyzed its movements from the ground.

"Are you ready, Rotom?" I asked my pokemon and he nodded as he floated closer to the center of the battlefield. I allowed her the first move and she declared she would take her Staravia to victory. I smiled a little because she reminded me of myself after I claimed confidence in myself when I met Rotom.

"Use Take Down!" She called to her flying pokemon as it slammed full force at Rotom, and it looked like it had hit my pokemon, but flew straight through it and curved in the air.

"Wing Attack!" The pokemon used its wings to strike Rotom in midair, but Rotom endured the attack and flew, rapidly, out of the way to a secure vantage point nearer to the ground. I knew if I used an Ominous Wind it wouldn't affect the Normal pokemon so I yelled for Rotom to use a Discharge.

"Uh-oh!" The trainer yelled as Rotom released a burst of blue energy that knocked the vulnerable Staravia out of the sky. Before the flying pokemon could hit the ground the trainer returned Staravia back to its ball and ran past me crying as she ventured all the way to Floaroma Town. I felt kind of bad, but realized she had challenged me and just continued walking alongside Rotom.

"That was incredibly easy." I looked at Rotom with a solemn expression. He turned to face the way we were traveling and didn't say anything else. I thought really hard about that girl who defeated us because something just struck me as off about her, like she didn't belong, but I didn't understand it and my brain dismissed it from my thoughts.

We climbed over a ledge and hiked over some stairs as we passed a house sitting right before the forest started. We had made it about halfway to the city as Rotom looked up and down at the forest peering inside but couldn't see passed the dense trees. We walked closer to the start of the forest and saw a group of trainers participating in a tag battle. I entered the forest expecting to see Galactic grunts but was greeted with shrubbery and trainers enjoying themselves.

Rotom and I wandered deeper into the forest passing by some Bug pokemon and even a Phanpy lying in a patch of grass next to a Donphan. We couldn't see through the thick trunks of the trees and I had a hard time pinpointing where we were. If we got lost I don't know what we would do. So we kept going, deeper into the massive trees and I even saw a Noctowl perched high on a tree branch watching us from below. We came to a section of the forest that was slowly inclining downwards and I could see the roof of a building farther down.

We descended into the deepest reaches of the forest when Rotom suddenly stopped where it was floating.

"I know this place." He said solemnly. I looked concerned at him and went farther down to see the large estate. It was a large mansion that looked like nobody had lived in there in over hundreds of years. Some of the windows were missing and the paint of the raggedy dark purple house was beginning to wither.

"What is this place? And how do you remember it?" I asked, facing Rotom. He shrugged his electrifying shoulders to which I became stunned.

"This place is so familiar but I can't remember why. It's like I've been here or something, I really don't know, sorry." Rotom said and I tried ignoring it but as we were walking toward the house to continue on our path to Eterna I stopped him and asked if we should go inside.

"I don't think that's a very wise idea." Rotom said to me.

"Are you scared or something?" I asked, smiling darkly, but playfully. Rotom followed me inside the large purple house when we walked around it and I could have sworn I heard a faint voice from the inside of the house, but upon further inspection I realized the sound I was hearing was a static coming from inside. Rotom became increasingly alert as we walked in the courtyard of the menacing mansion.

We ascended the stairs to the large black door that creaked when I opened it and Rotom floated inside when I walked through the opening. I saw the elegant arrangements of the previous owner of the house and frowned when I saw it was tarnished by some hooligans who spray painted derogatory slurs about Team Galactic on the walls. I ignored the slurs as I walked up the creaking staircase and into a room. Rotom did the same but with the room opposite, which had a parallel staircase of its own. We looked at the walls, whose paint was peeling horribly, and as I turned around to find Rotom, I heard a struggling sound coming from inside of the house.

Frightened, I called out for Rotom and saw he was using a Discharge in the room he had explored. I ran inside and saw the smoky body of a Gastly that must've attacked Rotom.

"What happened!" I said. Rotom was breathing really fast and told me the Gastly snuck out of the closet and attacked him. He retaliated and I suggested that we leave. Rotom refused to leave and said we might as well find the source of the static, which had become increasingly loud since we had gone upstairs.

"Did you figure anything out? Because all of this crap looks ancient." I said to him. We looked around the room Rotom was in and I discovered stacks of decaying papers on a desk. I couldn't make out what it said and I saw Rotom had floated out of the room and down the hall into a room in the center of the top floor. I walked after him and we entered a hallway with a long row of rooms, equally spaced from each other. The static had become increasingly loud. Rotom looked at me and signaled for me to follow. I pulled him back out to the foyer and we hugged the sides of the wall, when a Haunter peered out of a room and had gone out to explore the scene. After roaming the halls for us, the Haunter returned to its room at the way end of the hall and, we once again, resumed searching for the room with the static. It was very dark in this part of the house and I relied on Rotom's luminescent body to guide me through the darkest of the rooms.

We came to a loud room that forced the hair on every reach of my skin to stand on end as we walked into the bright room. There was a television in the center of the room and Rotom was transfixed with it. I covered my ears, then ran over to the television and looked around, with my ears covered to avoid the obtrusive noise, and located the off switch, but couldn't press it. I worried I would go deaf and Rotom saw me struggling and possessed the television, silencing it. I recovered my hearing after a moment and heard the shuffling of a pokemon in the room next door, as if enraged that the television had been silenced.

In the brightened hallway a murderous pokemon stood looking at me with daggers shooting from its one, single eye. I had never seen the pokemon before and it stood staring at me with, until I noticed it had a yellow face on its chest complete with eyes and wide yellow mouth of its own. The pokemon had no legs, only a tail that shuffled on the ground. It roamed into the cramped room where Rotom and I were and I walked to the back of the room, hitting the wall and sitting down in frozen terror. Why had I suggested we come in here?

The pokemon raised its hands and pointed at the television, to which I looked and saw Rotom was sitting on top of it watching the pokemon, never letting it leave his sight.

"Do you know what this thing is?" I asked Rotom.

"Dusknoir." He said, not taking his eyes off the pokemon. I looked back and saw the evil pokemon place its arms on its sides as Rotom and Dusknoir stared each other down.

"What's gonna happen? Rotom?" I asked, my voice breaking. Rotom wouldn't respond, and didn't move from the silent television, only staring at the Dusknoir. When it shuffled closer to me, Rotom floated in front of me, awaiting an attack from the pokemon.

"Rotom, whatever you do don't threaten it. Maybe it'll let us leave if we don't come back." I said trying to coax my pokemon to leave. I was scared so much by this pokemon and I just wanted to get us to safety before we antagonized it to the point where it attacked.

"It's not going to let us leave." Rotom said, finally. Dusknoir stood in the doorway, placing one hand on the wall, separating the room from the hallway. The Haunter I saw from before, peered underneath the Dusknoir's arm, and was watching us from its spot. I also saw a Shuppet looking from underneath the Haunter's head.

"Are you gonna let us through?" Rotom buzzed to the Dusknoir. I couldn't understand but I figured Rotom could talk to the pokemon. The pokemon didn't say anything and Rotom was still eying the Dusknoir, with cold plasma eyes. I could tell the Dusknoir was communicating with Rotom when I saw its hands move but Rotom hadn't looked away from the pokemon.

"Dusknoir isn't pleased that we trespassed into this place he keeps calling the 'chateau.' But I introduced myself and the Dusknoir had a change of heart, wanting us to follow him." Rotom said. Horrified, I looked at the pokemon whose yellow-eyed stomach was chomping as if preparing to devour Rotom and I , whole.

"Can you reason with the pokemon that we were stupid and curious?" I said.

"You were the one who wanted to come in, I said nah." Rotom joked. I couldn't believe his attitude during this frightful time and panicked.

"Don't worry, Aria. If he comes at us, I'll protect you with my life." Rotom said to me, I could tell he was smiling. Rotom conversed with the Dusknoir in a matter of buzzes and shrieks coming from both pokemon that I didn't understand. All I could see were the books lying face-down on the ground and the Haunter who floated inside the room and coming towards me. When it got too close, Rotom used a Discharge, which startled it. The Shuppet shrieked from behind the walls but Dusknoir was unfazed from the attack.

"What's happening?" I said panic streaming from my lips. I stood up in the illuminated room and walked next to Rotom who asked me to watch the Haunter to make sure it didn't advance any further from where it was floating inside the room.

"The Dusknoir said I looked familiar and told me to follow him. At first he wouldn't allow you to come but I said I'm not going anywhere without you and so the Dusknoir conceded and you'll be joining us to the basement of this place, Aria." Rotom said. I calmed down a little, but with a jolt of fear every now and then. The Dusknoir's yellow face stopped jiggling and the entire body had turned with its back to us. It said something to the Haunter and it quickly flew out of the room, the Shuppet had also disappeared. We followed the Ghost pokemon down the hall, when Rotom said out loud to me to remain calm and follow him.

The Haunter was still looking at us from the corner of the hall where we were, as the Dusknoir pushed up on a bust's face of a man I couldn't identify. The scalp of the decaying stone rose up to reveal a button, to which the ghost pokemon pressed, opening a hidden staircase. It descended into the basement of the house and Dusknoir beckoned us to follow. Rotom floated after the Dusknoir, as I watched carefully underneath Rotom to guide my feet as the stairs began spiraling. I was concentrating on Rotom's brightly illuminated body and my feet when I heard a click. The door behind us sealed us inside the dark spiral staircase as I kept my pace with Rotom.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Ghost of Rotom's Past

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 6: The Ghost of Rotom's Past

We descended into unutterable darkness as I followed Rotom's intense light, emanating from his plasma-like body. I could hear the shuffling of the Dusknoir as we went deeper, reaching the lowest reaches of the mansion in what seemed like an eternity. The air became dry as I felt the walls to keep my balance and increased my walking speed when the Ghost pokemon descended faster.

"Do you have any idea where were going?" I asked Rotom, a touch of fear mixed in with my voice as I saw him shake his ghostly head, never taking eyes of the faint shadow pokemon in front of him. The Dusknoir turned around once to make sure we were still following, raising its hand to beckon us into this bottomless pit. We eventually did find the bottom, but it was completely cloaked in darkness and I had no viable way to see other than the faint green glow coming from my poketch. Other than the unrelenting darkness, the stench of the room was so foul I had to hold my breath and breathe through my mouth or I'd lose consciousness.

"I think I remember your Dad packing you a flashlight before we left." Rotom said as the Dusknoir began shuffling ahead. I angled my backpack into the best lit area nearest Rotom and found a small rod that came equipped with a button. My Dad was an ingenious life savor. I quickly grabbed the flashlight and illuminated the dismal basement in the mansion.

I saw the bones of a decaying human, lying face down on the ground and squealed when some insect crawled out of the broken skull of the human. We were in a large room that looked like a private study and I couldn't quite make out the shapes yet, but I could see stacks of rotting books as we walked onward, through the study. Pokemon poked their heads out at us when the light shown near them and I completely walked past a sleeping Arbok, oblivious to its exposed tail. The Dusknoir came up to a door and produced a shining key from its yellow-eyed stomach as it twisted the key and opened the door, allowing us entrance into a room smelling less foul than the first.

"We're in some sort of private lab?" I said pointing my flashlight at a lab table still occupied by a flask with a strange liquid presiding in the glassware. This room was much smaller than the study and I saw as the Dusknoir pulled open the sides of the white wall and procured a box. Rotom and I cautiously walked up to the Dusknoir, holding the box and I shined the flashlight at the contents. Rotom looked up at the Dusknoir who was communicating by a series of _dusk _and _nor_ sounds.

"What's he saying?" I asked.

"He's seen me in one of these books." He replied mortified. I didn't understand what was going on when the Dusknoir grabbed my hand and beckoned me to open a book lying very carefully in gauze. I screamed, and Rotom calmed me down as I touched the decaying cover of a bluish green journal. I put the flashlight in my mouth and moved my head to read what the words said on the first page.

_Dr. Maximus L..._ The words were too obscured by age to be legible. I peered down as Rotom and the Dusknoir were watching me, waiting for a response. I flipped open to the first page of the journal entries and read out loud the date, and upon further calculation I discovered the first entry was from four-hundred and fifty years ago.

"Four-hundred and fifty years." Rotom repeated, in awe. I continued trying to make sense of the scribbles written by the author who wrote a short biography of the log, talking about the chemical properties of acetone, the biology of horseweed and the superposition principles of electromagnetic induction for an electrical pokemon whose name was unidentifiable. I almost dropped the book, which would've extinguished it, when I saw an exact drawing of Rotom on the page over. I showed Rotom the image and he just stared peculiarly at the page. I continued flipping until I reached a page that had a picture of a Dusclops with a trainer. From what I could make out of the picture, they were in the study when it was illuminated with candle lights.

"Is this you?" I said to the Dusknoir pointing at the Dusclops and its trainer. The Dusknoir nodded its head, almost despairingly. Then it looked back into the study briefly and I deduced something horrible.

"Then is that-" I began pointing back into the study with my chin, but suppressed my voice at the thought of the stench.

"Why are you showing this to us?" I looked at the tall Ghost pokemon who appeared sad. He talked to Rotom who then relayed the information to me as he's in need of our help and that he wanted to confirm something...

The Dusknoir was shaking its fist when Rotom explained what we had discovered and I almost dropped the book again when a creature appeared in the doorway. Dusknoir and Rotom looked up and I shined the flashlight on the figure as it climbed on the bookshelves in the room before us out of sight.

"There's something there!" I screamed. The creature made a sort of clicking sound and Dusknoir rushed into the room looking around in the darkness, using a Fire Punch when it had located the culprit. Rotom and I came up to the door as the Dusknoir shuffled back into the room, dragging the mangled body of a Sableye who was faint in the darkness, glistening when I moved my flashlight.

"This Sableye's been down here all this time?" I looked at the Dusknoir. It hummed something to Rotom and he relayed this to me as: "Several Ghosts find residency in this basement." I asked if we could leave and the Dusknoir halted us in the doorway buzzing something quickly to Rotom. Rotom in turn, buzzed back and the two went on like this until I had to interrupt, but Rotom silenced me with one look as Dusknoir was saying something, more.

"This Dusknoir needs our help." Rotom said finally.

"Okay, so then why are we still here. The mansions been out of use for hundreds of years and you finally turn up? What's the significance behind this?" I retorted. My fear of this place was rising exponentially. Dusknoir and Rotom agreed to lead us outside of the chateau, with Rotom guarding me from behind as Dusknoir led us back through the study. I screamed when I stepped on the tail of an Arbok who attacked us. Dusknoir was able to silence it with one Shadow Punch and Rotom floated near me for comfort.

We went back up the never-ending staircase and finally reached sea level. I was still holding the old journal and once I ran outside it was still bright out. I looked at my poketch which registered at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It felt like we were down in the abyss for days let alone minutes. Rotom exited the mansion along with Dusknoir and we found a quiet place in the courtyard of the chateau where the sun shone bright through the leaves of the tall trees.

"Can you ask Dusknoir why it wanted us to see this journal?" I looked at Rotom.

"Dusknoir already told me back in the mansion that he was also a former resident of the mansion when it actually operated. It turns out that someone tried to renovate the estate a couple decades ago and Dusknoir was their companion, but that corpse you saw in the basement was none other than Dusknoir's former master. The Dusknoir also hears the sounds of a little girl every night but never was able to find the source. He thinks the little girl is a ghost that was here far earlier than him and his master were"

"Holy crap." I said out loud, looking sullenly at the forsaken Dusknoir. I turned to face the pokemon and spoke, "Why haven't you left the place?" Rotom and Dusknoir communicated again and Rotom sighed before relaying the information to me.

"Ever since his trainer died, Dusknoir has been bound to the chateau by the trainers pokeball. The ball was stolen by the ghost pokemon living in the chateau and Dusknoir has spent his entire life searching for it, but nothing the Ghost pokemon say help him get anywhere near the missing ball rendering him bound to this stinking dump." Rotom explained as we looked at the dreading Dusknoir. I couldn't help but feel complete despair for the pokemon, whose trainer had died and now its bound to the very place where his master died.

"Well then we're going to get his ball back. We're going to search every last inch of this forsaken place and find that pokeball" I said with an inch of confidence that was extinguished when I saw two Zubat nesting above my head. The idea, although reckless, was the only thing that gave me a sliver of hope in rescuing the bound pokemon. Rotom, dispirited, spoke to the Dusknoir, and mentioned my tenacious scheme. Then I got a better idea.

"What if I offered to just take him with us? You know like catch him?" The Dusknoir shook its head no and I wondered what was wrong. Rotom and Dusknoir, again, exchanged buzzes and ghostly verbs.

"Do you know how if you tried to catch any normal trainer's pokemon it wouldn't work because that pokemon was already caught? Well the idea is the same here."

"But the pokeball might be gone so maybe if I try to catch him it'll free him." I said, pulling out an unoccupied pokeball from my bag. I held it up to the Dusknoir who didn't respond and tapped it lightly. The pokemon, who wasn't resisting my attempt to catch it, wasn't transferred to the ball and remained standing before us.

"See." Rotom said flatly. I was crestfallen when I realized the pokemon had spent decades in this place, alone. It reminded me of how lonely I was before Rotom came into my life.

"Well. Now you and I are going to help unbind this pokemon no matter what." I said looking at Rotom, who nodded. Dusknoir understood us and bounced as if this was the only thing that made it happy in a long time. I understood now why the pokemon had given me this journal and I flipped through the pages to find where the descendant of the original owner of the house had moved in.

"I get it now." I said as Rotom looked from Dusknoir to my eyes. "Dusknoir wanted us to decipher the entries written by its trainer who is a descendant of the previous owner of the house."

"How did you know that?" Rotom inquired. I looked through the pages, carefully as to protect them from their own demise, when I came to a page that talked about the newer tenants family.

_Maximus left this house a broken man and my great grandfather didn't even realize this house was left for him by his grandfather, who is the same man. Now I'm here and _it cuts off right there. Rotom nodded in approval and I read more pages as the three of us stood there. The sound of a Beedrill was buzzing in the woods and Dusknoir turned to look at the window of the chateau when a Gastly peered through the window, looking down at us and giggling to itself. Rotom and Dusknoir waited for me to come across something of value by observing the peaceful nature outside the malevolent mansion.

They talked amongst themselves getting to know each other better. I noticed, as I was reading through worn pages, that they got along well together. I figured I would just let the Dusknoir leave when we fix this dilemma but I don't know, maybe it's time I catch another pokemon. I read the pages in my head and at first they didn't make any sense to me. I read a log about a chemical that had disease curing qualities but the recipe was torn out. The following page had more pictures of the deceased trainer and the Dusclops, when to my horror I saw a translucent little girl standing next to them in the picture. The next picture had the girl lying on the floor when the Dusclops and trainer were busily working in the study. I wondered who the cameraman was, and if he was still alive... Flipping through more pages I came across yet another photograph of the trainer except this time the ghost girl had a small object in her hands and it looked like a ball. The Dusclops looked alarmed in the picture and I could sense the two people must have gone after the girl who took the object, and I concluded after reading the footnotes on the bottom of the page that this phantom stole the Dusknoir's pokeball when it was a Dusclops all those years ago.

"Guys!" I called after the ghost pokemon. They floated and shuffled over to me as I told them my discovery. Dusknoir looked dejected when I said the ghost girl has his ball. Rotom looked angry for a moment.

"That little girl is going to give us that ball if we have to pry it from her ethereal fingers." Rotom said charismatically. I almost wanted to correct him in his oxymoron but felt it wasn't the time for sarcastic comments.

"Well now were gonna do some investigative work. Let's start with that Gastly and Haunter." I said, smirking. The Dusknoir understood the plan and barged through the front door, like he owned the place. Rotom, Dusknoir and I wandered up the stairs and into the first room where Rotom and I first encountered the Gastly, who was still floating aimlessly by the window.

Rotom went before the grinning Gastly and questioned the Ghost in a series of buzzes and giggles. The Dusknoir barred the door so no other pokemon could enter so I looked around the room again, this time inspecting the closet facing the window. It contained nothing except a single coat hanger but I saw that there was a piece of white material (which I later identified as a bone) that lay crumbled on the floor of the closet.

"Aria. This Gastly doesn't know anything." Rotom said looking to me as the Gastly flew straight out of the room, terrified.

"What did you say to it?" I asked, curiously. Rotom winked at me and we followed Dusknoir into a room containing a bed and a bookshelf. We came into the room with the Haunter and it floated upwards and sprang its arms wide, to intimidate us. Dusknoir hummed something to Rotom who was staring the Haunter dead in the eye.

"Dusknoir wasn't ever able to communicate with the ghosts, but I'm different." Rotom said using a Discharge on the Haunter, paralyzing it to the ground. I stood with my mouth ajar as Rotom floated over the Haunter, interrogating it like a criminal. I stood near the Dusknoir and peered to the hallway of the house. No sound was heard and I remembered the television wasn't buzzing anymore, but my blood curdled when I heard faint laughter as if it was coming from inside of the house. Who knows how many people's souls were bound to this house. I turned around suddenly as Rotom looked at me for a second before returning to the injured Haunter. Dusknoir looked at me, confused, then I could tell it had heard the laughter and beckoned for me to join it. Before we could exit the room the Haunter sighed painfully and Rotom returned back to us.

"That Haunter claims he's only been here a short while, but he said he's heard strange noises coming from the house. Sounds that pokemon don't make." Rotom looked from me to the Dusknoir.

"So if its not a pokemon, then what's making those noises?" Just when I said this a gut wrenching human-like scream came in waves from the walls of the house. I collapsed on the ground covering my ears as the pokemon around me sprang around looking for the source only to find there wasn't one.

"What's happening." I whimpered on the dirty ground, paralyzed with fear. The journal was lying next to me and I saw the Dusknoir was pointing frantically at it. Despite the fear I was able to make the connection: Dusknoir's old trainer may be haunting this mansion. The laughter was heard again and Rotom and Dusknoir left me in the room alone with the paralyzed Haunter as I sat up, still in shock. I recollected my backpack and the journal and exited the room. I saw Rotom and Dusknoir standing in front of the room next to the one I was in and Rotom's eyes were wide open with its mouth gawking into the room. I walked awkwardly to the ghosts who then proceeded to enter the room still in shock by the looks of it.

I walked cautiously into the room and couldn't believe my eyes. I felt like my brain was playing tricks on me and I thought I saw a little girl playing with a pokeball in the room on the floor The Dusknoir hummed again and Rotom, still staring at the girl said, "Dusknoir didn't think the rumors were actually true. That a little girl died in this mansion hundreds of years ago." I was still looking at the girl.

"But why has she revealed herself now and to us? Why hasn't the Dusknoir been able to find her. And if I'm not mistaken, that must be his pokeball." I said pointing to the ball the smoky child was playing with. We entered the room quietly and as if on cue, the girl stopped and looked to us.

"My best friend came back after all, papa." I heard the girl whisper as she stared directly at Rotom. I actually didn't believe this was happening and felt faint from the craziness that was ensuing. Nobody answered the girl as she called for her Dad again before dropping the ball on the floor.

"How the hell does she know you, Rotom?" I asked, my eyes fixated on the girls face. It was pale but looked soft and perfect to the touch. I wanted just for a moment to be able to touch the intangible child but was repelled due to all my anxiety wanting to explode. Another bloodcurdling scream came from the house and I begged Rotom to leave.

"Rotom?" I asked. Then I realized why the little girl was revealing herself to us. It was because she was waiting. For Rotom. I started panicking from this incredible information I had synthesized and was still in shock partially due to the freaking screams that are echoing from downstairs of this house. Rotom was still looking at the girl as she returned a delighted look back.

"My papa wanted to let the motor pokemon know that he hid the Secret Key in the bottom of the ocean." The ghost girl whispered. "And Anna can go to sleep now." The girl disappeared and I didn't hear another scream. Dusknoir looked at the pokeball lying gently on the ground and asked Rotom to ask me to pick it up. Everything was moving so fast and I didn't have time to ask any of the hundreds of questions I had bottled up. I decided this was just one of those things you erase from your mind once it's over and I wouldn't ever have to worry about this stupid mansion ever again.

Rotom and the Dusknoir conversed out in the courtyard of the chateau as I held the old pokeball, noticing that modern technology looked similar to the pokeballs of the past. I looked in the forest, then back to the chateau, vowing never to return to this creepy place, when Rotom produced a laugh.

"Hey, Aria." Rotom called me over. "The Dusknoir is still bound to its original pokeball but we've identified that this is the one. This Dusknoir is now able to roam the world now, freely."

"That's really nice. I'm glad we were able to help him." I said smiling at the pokemon I once thought was going to end my life. I could've been wrong, but the face on its belly looked like it was happy for the first time in decades.

"But." Rotom said so suddenly I got spooked for a second.

"But what?"

"But the Dusknoir asked me if you would be willing to take him along with us." Rotom said and I looked shocked at the Ghost pokemon before me.

"He?" I said pointing at Dusknoir. "Wants me to be his new trainer?" The Dusknoir nodded and understood what I had said perfectly. I couldn't believe it that a new pokemon was coming into my life. And, unexpectedly, this Ghost pokemon who we saved from its bind.

"Well that's fine with me, so lets get-"

"Woah, woah, woah." Rotom interrupted me. "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" I looked at him and he smiled from me to the Dusknoir.

"I have to catch him, don't I?" I said as Rotom nodded, smiling. The Dusknoir looked super happy, too. In the courtyard, I stood several feet away from the Dusknoir as Rotom got into a battle-ready position. I pooled all the adrenaline I had from the nightmarish experience inside the chateau to focus on the Dusknoir, and I could see out of the corner of my eye, a Shuppet watching us from above.

The battle began when the Dusknoir launched itself at Rotom and punched my pokemon with a powerful Fire Punch sending Rotom flying backwards, but after a moment Rotom regained its balance in the air I ordered him to use an Ominous Wind. Dusknoir held out against the super effective attack and went for a Shadow Punch when Rotom glided underneath Dusknoir's hand unleashed a powerful Discharge which sent Dusknoir backwards, but not enough to paralyze or defeat him.

Dusknoir shuffled after Rotom again, this time preparing another Fire Punch which, missed Rotom only slightly. After Rotom attempted another Ominous Wind in the same fashion as before, Dusknoir charged through the attack and punched Rotom in the face with another fiery attack, but this time Rotom was able to hold out against the attack and remain afloat.

I commanded Rotom to use Discharge and it struck Dusknoir right in the yellow bellied face, causing him to flinch with pain. Then, Rotom used a final Ominous Wind which knocked the Dusknoir off its tail and it collapsed on the ground near the stairs leading up to the chateau's foyer. I quickly grabbed the old pokeball from my bag and threw it at the pokemon, sealing it within the ball and it shook on the ground before ceasing, rendering the Dusknoir mine. I had caught my second pokemon.

Rotom and I shared a brief moment of celebration and we were jumping in excitement before I walked over to my new pokemon.

That afternoon, Rotom and I walked happily through the forest with the guidance of my new friend, Dusknoir. He shuffled alongside Rotom and I, as he pointed in the direction where he remembered seeing trainers walk through when he stared down at them from the window of the chateau. He asked if he could rest in his pokeball and I happily obliged as Rotom and I talked. We talked about our experience in the house and as I recollected the happenings I remembered I still had the old journal in my backpack. Rotom told me to hang onto it and maybe we'd be able to discover something else about the house's history.

Rotom definitely led a life before becoming my best friend and I was bent on learning his past. I didn't understand though, how Rotom wasn't able to remember anything from before the day when he got badly burned. He couldn't even remember the pokemon that inflicted the burn, only the pain from the burn and my Dad carrying him home.

We came up to a clearing in the forest and I was glad to be near civilization again. There was a small pond with a bridge leading towards a patch of land. The first thing I saw when I stepped out of the forest were mounds of sandbags and barbed wire on top of a large wall that looked like it was thirty feet in the air. I saw watchtowers with people who looked like the stereotypical Team Galactic operatives in the news I usually watched and I stopped on the bridge to look at the fortification made on the entrance to Eterna City. Rotom and I approached the wall, as I fumbled in my bag for papers tucked away in the bottom of my backpack.


	7. Chapter 7 - A Woman's Ire

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 7: A Woman's Ire

Well we made it to the city. The one that's barricaded from the inside and the way they barricaded it makes me wonder if they expected people to ever enter the city limits at all. Rotom and I looked up as a man looked down at us and ran over to whatever is on the other side of this gigantic wall. It seemed like the Eterna Forest would be a demilitarized zone and this was proven to me when the Society wouldn't be able to penetrate the heavily fortified wall. I never knew that the land I live on was in such turmoil over opposing viewpoints. Rotom and I both agreed we were a bit scared of what was to come when we realized we were in a completely different world where the laws of physics didn't apply here. The Society seemed to make me believe that all Galactics were blood sucking beasts that craved destruction and I was honestly a bit uneasy when I could see their disapproving looks from all the way on the other side of the wall.

The Galactics were discussing something and I saw their heads peek down at me again as they discussed some things with someone who looked in charge. A man in a silver Galactic suit called down below to someone as he descended on some stairs I inferred were on the reverse side of the barricade. A click was heard and to my surprise, the wall began moving down as though it were a facade to keep enemies out... or to keep its citizens in. The silver-suited man looked to be in his fifties as he walked over to us and Rotom looked at him virulently, as though he were gearing up to attack. The man, when he was within spitting distance appropriated a smile on his face and clasped his hands together to welcome me.

"I just want to get in I'm not a terrorist." I said looking at him, then to Rotom who continued staring down the man.

"I am Lieutenant Murphy Varin." He said eying me. I held up papers to which he looked at them awkwardly re-reading each word twice until I had to cough to get his attention.

"That is a legal document signed by the Society and Galactic leadership saying I can enter since I'm taking the Sinnoh League Challenge." I said to him, carefully. I was well aware of the malicious ways of this association and I wasn't about to be friendly with them after all they've done to my peaceful land.

"This also says that you're a Society Member and that would make you public enemy number one on my list."

"Look I don't want any trouble, my papers validate me and I'm not going to cause any disturbances so can I please just go?" I looked at him with my eyes pleadingly, but with a startling annoyance building up inside of me like this man was the root of all my problems.

"How do I know you're not just a Society operative trying to sneak into my city?"

"I'm certified. I'm taking the pokemon league challenge. I even have a gym badge from Oreburgh," I showed him. "I'm not hostile, I swear."

"You're just a little kid, why don't you just run off back into the bushes and play with your dolls?" He said shooing me.

"Why don't I call your supervisors and tell them a boneheaded Lieutenant is refusing my entrance into a city despite legal documents? I said frantically. I was well aware I had lied but it was the only way to let me into the city.

"You're bluffing." He said flatly. "I don't care who you are, you're not about to make look bad you arrogant piece of-"

"Varin!" A female voice called from inside the fortress. "Who's there?" An oddly dressed woman appeared from inside the barricade and I couldn't understand who she was until it hit me.

"S-sorry commander. I didn't mean to do anything wrong I was just following protocols." Varin's voice changed from threatening to subdued in negative three seconds.

"Protocols?" The woman laughed. Her gaze was focused on me as she left the protection of the fortress and pushed Varin aside and she extended her arm to meet mine. The first thing I noticed was her makeup was illuminated in the bright sunlight and her dark skin shone in the daytime air.

"Geraldine Swan." She said shaking my hand.

"Aria Ketchum." I said back to her, something mysterious lurked within her dark brown eyes and her long wavy hair blew in the wind that came from the forest and ascended high into the rising rocks of Mt. Coronet miles away. She wore white Galactic clothes and I could tell she was in charge.

"But the people around these parts like to refer to me as 'Jupiter.'" She said as I connected the dots and realized I just shook hands with the woman who was responsible for the Jubilife Bombings. I instantly changed my perception of this woman and swore I'd feel nothing more than hatred for her and the rest of the scoundrels that lurked in this world, destroying everything in their wake.

"Glad to finally meet someone who'll talk to me that isn't stupid." I said looking Varin in the eye, to which he angrily walked at me and Jupiter pushed him away, back into the fortified land.

"I hear you want in?" Jupiter said looking deviously at me. She thought I was some kid who got lost.

"I'm just here for my second Gym Badge, I don't want any trouble. Then I'll be on my way." I said, my eyes wandering from her to the mountains far behind her and the city.

"I see you possess a document with Mars's signature written on it. You should feel proud of your Society leaders for their hard work in restoring a once great adventure many people wish to embark." Her smile looked so real but I could feel it was fake like her eyebrows. Her darkened face diminished her facial features but I could still see the faint veins of crow's feet on her face.

"Yes." I said, not knowing what needed to be said. Geraldine Swan finally looked away from me and looked at Rotom for the first time who was also transfixed on her, too. The two of them formed a solid indecisive connection between the them that relied on intimidation and alertness. She returned to me and smiled with a reddish lipstick applied perfectly on her face, to which she turned around and walked back into the fortification, awaiting me to follow her.

I can't say I wasn't a little afraid of this place. It was like I was walking into a new world that was just outside of my own hometown. Jupiter took me over to a small building located deep within the fortification. As we approached the building I found myself looking in all directions at the first piece of Galactic Sinnoh I've seen in my life. There were people walking around in the fortified land that looked as though they were preparing for war. Men were placing sandbags on a Honchcrow's back as it flew up to the top of the wall I first saw and placed it carefully with the rest of them. In the watchtowers I saw two Galactic operatives and a Blastoise wearing a Galactic uniform as they watched the ground below, awaiting any assailants who might threaten their "peace." In the watchtower next to them, I could see two Mareep, also in Galactic uniform looking down at the scene below and I couldn't tell if they wanted to come down themselves.

The people on the ground were moving things left and right. I saw some Rhyhorn moving boxes of stuff I couldn't identify and behind them I saw a gate that seemed to lead to the city. Jupiter wasn't leading me into the city, and instead she led me into a building with a large yellow "G" painted on the top center. We were greeted by a Galactic operative who curiously stared at me and exited the building as we entered it. I could feel his eyes on the back of my head when we walked in and he watched us. Jupiter illuminated the room which looked like an ordinary conference room and she took a seat, telling me to take anyone. I took one seat sitting opposite to hers on the large conference table and Rotom floated near my head.

"Must that pokemon get in the way our bonding?" She looked at Rotom.

"Rotom and I are partners. He's staying and that's final." I looked her dead in the eyes.

"Fine." She smiled, coldly. "If you want entrance into Eterna City, we do things a little differently here. Here we abhor any misconducts within the city limits and as you can see we take extra precautions to ensure that." She said sitting forward in her chair with one hand cupped into the other as she rested her chin on top of it. I noticed the walls were very barren except for one poster of the entire Sinnoh region with the two halves denoted by red and blue.

"You've come a long way haven't you?" She questioned me.

"From Twinleaf Town." I said flatly.

"Oh." She shook her head as if she couldn't care if I came from the gutter. "I heard they hold a festival there. And that General Barrington makes an appearance there every so often." She smiled, still looking at me.

"He's someone."

"Oh, do you know him?"

"Are we playing the question game because I have things I need to do."

"Now, now, Aria. I'm just getting a feel of you. If you seem okay enough to roam through my city then I'll let you but I need to make sure you're not up to anything, okay?" She smiled so sweetly and I could see through her red lipstick and her crows feet to the deep hatred she had for Barrington, when all I knew about him was that he was the leader of my region and that he was creepily looking at me at the Twinleaf Festival.

"Okay I don't know him at all, except when I was registering for the League, he was staring at me weirdly. That's all." I said looking at the table.

"Sure?" She tilting her head. I could tell she wasn't pleased with my answer and was hoping for something else. I shook my head in silence as she nodded hers looking at the wall behind me.

"It's just you and Rotom? No friends on the journey?" She began again.

"No, my friend's families forbade them from coming with me because they said it was too dangerous."

"And dangerous this world is." She said nodding her head. Then she looked up at the ceiling. "It's funny, you know how long people fight and murder. It's a never ending cycle that flows through all of history and it's not worth anyone's time." This angered me deeply. "I've been at war for now, for about twenty years." She paused. "I was, I think around your age when the war began in my hometown of Sunyshore. I was thought of as a smart, young woman who was planning on becoming a software engineer at the University and I had a full ride and the support of all my peers. Then, when war collapsed I found myself choosing sides and so I sided with Team Galactic or die, basically." She paused again.

"Why are you telling me this." I eyed her angrily.

"Because I know you know terrible things about me." She looked down from the ceiling and into my eyes.

"What?" I looked frozen. Rotom noticed my discomfort and started shaking as if to leave the building. I looked up at him and he ceased, but he never looked away from the woman.

"I've only just met you." I looked at her dumbfounded.

"You're from Twinleaf Town. Where they host the Twinleaf Festival and everyone gathers to celebrate the ongoing battle against Team Galactic. I also am aware that they extensively tell the younger people there about the 'terrible ways' of my organization." She said looking from me to the door and back.

"I'm sure I am a large topic of discussion and I don't really feel the need to repeat the things I've done." She said focusing her gaze on me.

"How is that supposed to make me believe you? You have the blood of hundreds of people and your hands. Something you can't wash away." I spewed my anger at her. She remained calm and I saw her look to the door, not moving away from her comfortable position.

"Can I show you something?" I watched, with ire as she stood up and walked into a room adjacent to the front of the stony building. I could hear her shuffling through her things and she sighed when she came across a paper that she took with her back into the conference room. She propped the piece of paper before me and Rotom became tense as she walked close to me.

_For determination and fierce passion for the science of engineering, this certificate of excellence is presented to Geraldine L. Swan, for brilliant conduct in achieving the Mastery of Science thereunto which presents a startling new face in the world and to therefore replace the great minds of a land that which was no more but revitalized with this young, brilliant mind. _I read it out loud. I looked at her and she was just staring down at the diploma, recollecting past memories of her life. I wasn't sure it the diploma was fake or not but I still didn't trust her.

"I know the things I've done can't be taken back. Everyone in this world has done things they can't take back. Sometimes I have bouts of regret because I hear screams in the deep inner reaches of my skull."

"And you think you're sob story and a diploma is going to make me forget about all the lives you took? To win some war?" I stood up, not going to take anymore of this bullshit.

"Listen you little whore." She said slapping the grand tabletop with the palms of both hands and my eyes widened. Rotom became increasingly agitated now. "I can send your little behind back to whatever dirt gutter you came from if I had a mind to. I'm under oath from my superior and General Barrington to welcome you brats into my city and if I so much as catch you spitting in the wrong direction I will personally whip your sorry butt back to wherever it is you're from. Are we clear on that?" She looked at me, flaring her nostrils in anger.

"Crystal."

Rotom and I stormed through the rest of the Galactic settlement and reached a gate. I was blown away by that woman, Geraldine Swan. The fact that she was trying to gain my sympathy. My sympathy? I just can't right now. I need to sit down somewhere. Rotom and I walked no less than thirty seconds before the bright red roof of the pokemon came into view. The sun was shining in the bright sky and it was starting to get a little dimmer, unlike me. I was burning with emotion when Rotom tried calming me down.

"I'm so pissed off." I looked down the road as I looked around the actual city, with Rotom floating beside me. We walked straight into the pokemon center and I needed a place to let off some steam. The center wasn't too busy and a boy who was handed back his Chikorita noticed me sitting down angrily.

"She's crazy." Rotom said.

"I am so done with these Galactics. I can't wait to get back to Society Sinnoh and be done with this place." I looked at him. Rotom was hovering up and down in agreement with me and out of the corner of my eye I saw the boy holding his Chikorita, looking at me. He looked as if he were my age but we of course didn't know each other.

"Are you okay? You seem really out of it." The boy said taking the seat next to mine. His Chikorita squirmed in his hands when it saw Rotom and in response, Rotom buzzed intimidatingly.

"I'm just not in a good mood." I said looking at Rotom.

"Well I can tell you're not from around here, I've never seen you here before. M-My name's Medgar." Medgar had really dark hair and a small, round nose, but he also had innocent pale blue eyes that looked at me curiously, as though nothing in this town could ever possibly enrage someone as much as it had caused in me. I explained, in brief, the situation with Commander Jupiter and he looked around the center, making sure nobody around could threaten him before nodding in agreement with me. He told me that she was becoming increasingly oppressive on the citizens after she got a warning from the other commanders that the Society was dramatically increasing surveillance of the Eterna Forest. I didn't quite understand why he was telling this to me but it helped calm me down a little.

"There? Are you not angry anymore?" He looked innocently at me. I nodded and looked at his Chikorita that was cuddled up in a little blue ball taking a nap in Medgar's arms.

"I should probably tell you my name is Aria."

"That's okay, stranger or not, I don't like seeing people angry. It doesn't do well to the already crumbling atmosphere of this city, I do the best I can." He said smiling.

"I volunteer at the homeless shelter on the other side of town, where we help feed people in need. I find that people who learn to help others learn to help themselves find internal joy. Perhaps you would want to join me?" Medgar said, cracking a little smile.

"I would love to." I said looking from Rotom to the boy. "I'll go with you to the shelter and later can you show me to the gym in this town? I came here to face the gym leader and leave this place as quickly as possible." He blinked.

"Well, sure I'll of course walk you to the gym and perhaps then we can have a battle?" He said smiling at me.

"Sure, I could use some practice before my gym battle." I said.

"I don't understand I thought you wanted the gym badge?" Medgar looked at me confused.

"What?" I said. His Chikorita looked up at me and giggled.

"Oh." I said, blushing.

The entire day went by really well. Medgar took me to the shelter and we spent a good two hours until the sun began going down, handing out food and drinks to impoverished people. Many of them welcomed Medgar as soon as he walked in through the doors and I was just his plus one. Rotom floated by my head as I handed a tray with bread, warm chicken noodle soup (that I scooped out of a huge cauldron) and a small bowl of white rice to people who smiled warmly at us. I also met some people who were friends with people from Twinleaf Town and asked me to relay their greeting to some of them back home, despite me not knowing some of the people they had mentioned.

That day I didn't think about the Commander or Team Galactic and just enjoyed myself with all the people I had met. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to Bruce, Lynn, Phil and Old Mags when Medgar and I left the shelter but I promised them all I'd return and spend the day, again. Medgar and I got to know each other a little better and I was surprised the Gym Leader was so active in the cities inner reaches but more so that he was so young. I asked when he had become the gym leader of this city and it turns out he had only been a gym leader for about two months now. But in that time he's only had a few battles and none of them were for League challengers. I told him I was the first of many trainers to come and he shook his head excitedly when I said both sides of Sinnoh agreed to pardon trainers taking the Sinnoh League Challenge.

"Where can I find a place to sleep, tonight?" I looked at him, laughter still in my voice as he had just told a funny joke about a Galactic Grunt.

"I have a house, a couple blocks away from the gym. It's pretty big and you could stay there the night if you like." He said, trying to make it sound like the idea wasn't a little bit weird.

"Sleeping over at a Gym Leader's house?" I laughed. Rotom looked at me cautiously and I returned an eager, carefree look.

When we walked to the large house in the south side of town Medgar reached into his blue pants pocket and grabbed a silver key, which he used to unlock the front to his house. I walked in, looking at the beautiful paintings and was impressed by the cleanliness of such a marvelous place.

"Where are your parents?" I turned to him after admiring a painting of yellow and blue swirls in a gorgeously painted night sky. He looked downcast as the last word breached my lips and spread out to his ears.

"They were killed in a fire when I lived in Hearthome City." I just looked at him, shocked. Rotom stopped where he was floating and just looked at the sullen boy, not too much older than I was.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No. It's fine. I've looked past that. I have this spacious house to spend the rest of my days with my pokemon. In peace." He said, looking at the paintings and the chandelier.

"My mom died, when I was born and my Dad thought I was gone too but the doctors were wrong and I was born a live baby." I tried leveling the mood. I didn't realize why I told him such a deep fact about myself, but there was something about Medgar that made me trust him and it wasn't his pale blue eyes, but something much more magnetic. Something I couldn't wrap my brain around.

"Thanks, Aria. Now let's see where you'll be lodging." He said returning his smile back to his face. We walked up the stairs of the large red house and down a brief red-walled hall, where he came to a dark door and opened it.

He showed me inside the nicely decorated room and I could tell this was designed for guests, only. It was quite a large room with red walls and elegantly arranged drawers that I observed were vacant. He showed me the bathroom that was beautiful in itself and I thought about taking a shower in the nice home. Too bad I didn't pack any clothes. Looks like Rotom and I are going shopping tomorrow.

Medgar left us alone and I quickly jumped into bed, recollecting the day in my thoughts as I tried snoozing away. That night I thought about my terrible encounter with Commander Jupiter, but it was mended by Medgar's sweet personality. I remember feeling so guilty when he begged for my forgiveness when it was too late to have the gym battle. He swore we would have our battle first thing the following day at his gym which he said I would love. I found myself enjoying the places Medgar showed me and all along I thought about leaving this place and never turning a blind eye. But Medgar opened it and I loved him for that.


	8. Chapter 8 - Convergence

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 8 - Convergence

Medgar treated me to breakfast that day. We agreed eating alone in that big house would be a little awkward and he told me he knew a fabulous place to have pancakes that was fairly inexpensive. We walked a short ways to the pancake house, down the street from his place and on the way he pointed to a cinema that he says plays only the best movies in Sinnoh. I told him my Dad once took me to see a movie about a superhero and his Mudkip in Jubilife to which Medgar laughed and said he knew the movie: _Mudkipz save all of the Dayz_.

That morning it had rained a little and the entire city was coated in a mildly cold mist. The ground we walked on was also a little wet and I regretted wearing shorts because it had become quite chilly. Despite this, Medgar and I walked onward avoiding puddles and laughing with each other. I didn't know why he was being so nice to me, I was only a challenger but I felt like ruining the moment would be awkward and I didn't want that. I knew something about him made me want to remain close friends. I just didn't know what the "something" was.

Joan's Pancake House was a small blue diner that looked warm and comfortable on the outside but when I first set foot inside, the aroma of food motor-boated me like the time I was tackled while playing the championship lacrosse game my freshman year in high school. I broke my arm but it was no big deal, but the aroma was so pure and wonderful I felt like it would entrance me and I would never leave without eating everything. Medgar introduced me to his friend, Danielle to which she smiled at us and said we could order whatever we liked. Medgar chose a table in the middle of the place and after a minute of conversation, Danielle came back and took our orders. I guess it was "boring Thursday" because we both just wanted a big plate of steaming pancakes. They were simply fantastic, it was like I was eating an angelic cloud made from eggs and flour.

He asked me what life was like on the other side of the border and so I told him endlessly about life in Society Sinnoh and we actually exchanged a real person conversation that I didn't think I would have coming into Eterna. He told me about how he wanted to visit the beautiful town of Floaroma but nobody was permitted to leave the city, not even the Gym Leader. The flower patch in the northern part of Floaroma, he described to me, was his goal. He wanted to nothing more in this world than to live among thousands of flowers and I just nodded while devouring the fluffy flapjack.

The inside of the pancake house was vivacious and looked comfortable for anyone, whether they were from Galactic or Society Sinnoh. Something that crossed my mind that morning was how the actual citizens of both sides would behave when near each other. Would they follow in their protectors footsteps and despise other people just because they lived in a different place? My brain was itching for answers when Medgar caught my attention.

"Don't look behind you, but I see a Galactic Grunt sitting in a booth behind us, watching you. Should we leave?" He asked.

"Nah, you know what, Jupiter's just making sure I behave." I said, a little cross. We continued our breakfast with as little awkwardness as possible and when we finished, Medgar paid Danielle for the both of us. Before I could protest he told me to not worry about it and follow him outside. The Galactic Grunt also got up. Medgar held my hand in his as we raced quickly around the restaurant, into an alley and ran as far as possible from the grunt who was hopelessly lost, searching for me.

"We should probably go back to your house. I told Rotom to hang back at your place while we got breakfast and he'll get worried if we're gone too long." I said smiling as we raced past large, green metallic garbage holders and empty gondolas. We ran faster towards the narrow end of the alleyway and out the other side of the block. We stopped running in the busy street where people and pokemon rummaged about.

"I'm aware." His blue eyes followed mine. "But first I want to show you something." He took my hand again and we ran through people and pokemon as this boy I just met yesterday, held my hand and we ran through the city. But I couldn't protest to this kind of lifestyle. It was exhilarating and I was never exposed to fast paced life back in Twinleaf. We came up to a clearing in the end of the city and further ahead I could see the twisting peaks of moutains and could even see the tallest one, Mt. Coronet. Ahead of us was a bridge and the entrance to a cave inside Mt. Coronet's vast cave systems.

Medgar told me about how there used to be a park where we were standing but the Galactics destroyed it when they came in from the north. Along with the things destroyed, was a statue of a legendary pokemon that no longer viewed the world on its large bronze pedestal. He told me about the legendary pokemon Palkia, that the locals from years past had the rare opportunity to witness the legendary pokemon. The ancient people of this land were so inspired by the pokemon's elegance that they decided to dedicate a large statue to Palkia. Now it remains gone, absorbed by the uneven gravel when the invasion took place.

"This statue was extremely important to the locals of this city and the Galactics just ruined everything." He looked at me, then to the large expanse of ground which somewhere harbored a large pokemon statue. I looked long at the ground and thought of my peaceful land at home, away from the destruction caused by the Galactics. I reminded Medgar that Rotom would be angry and he acknowledged my request as we walked all the way back to his house, working off the calories from the pancakes this morning.

Medgar and I finally reached his house after walking all the way through the Eterna streets and when we opened the door, Rotom frantically floated into my face. I told Medgar that I was just going to get my backpack and shut the door behind me. He told me not to wait up as he disappeared into his study next to the front door. Rotom and I walked up the stairs and left as we were again met with the red hallway and the dark door. We both entered the room and I shut it with my back leaning and smiled up at the ceiling only for a moment before Rotom became the center of my vision.

"You had me worried sick about you, Aria." Rotom buzzed, angrily.

"I'm sorry, I told him we should get back here sooner but he wanted to show me around the city." I smiled as I walked over to the ground and grabbed my bag. Rotom rolled his eyes and just joined me as we exited the room.

"Where are we going now?" Rotom asked as we walked through the hallway.

"Our second Gym Battle." I looked at him as he reciprocated an increasingly excited look.

"Dusknoir's first gym battle." I said to myself. Then Rotom and I came back to the foyer of the house and were met with Medgar's blue eyes as the three of us exited the house. We continued walking straight from his street and we crossed the road before parting ways with the house and Medgar said the Gym was on the other side of the street. Rotom floated nearby as we talked more and more about that foolish Galactic Grunt that was following me and I was surprised when I saw the roof of the Gym he identified to be his.

"This would be it." He said looking up at the dark roof, with drops of rain hitting the ground and every so often a minute splat could be heard on the side of the gym. Medgar gripped both door handles with his hands and thrust open the gym. At first I couldn't see anything, but when he switched on the lights my eyes were deceiving me. The gym harbored hundreds of beautiful flowers and various other plant life that was sheltered perfectly underneath a glass roof, providing no sunlight today but I inferred it would look break-taking in bright, summer light.

"This place is so different from the one in Oreburgh." I said looking all the flowers and Rotom floated through the peaceful flowers, too, observing all the colors and shapes.

"Team Galactic hasn't touched it yet, so I'm happy just based on that fact." Medgar said looking at the trees further inside. When I inquired about that, he told me Team Galactic makes all buildings in the city pay a protection fee and after Medgar's parents died he was responsible for the money and the house. The house, he explained, was payed off but he still had to pay a small tax at the end of each month to Team Galactic.

"I can't imagine what they do with all this money." I said shaking my head. "Is this the same with all of Galactic Sinnoh because I know we don't pay any taxes to the Society?"

"I'm not sure. I don't really communicate with the rest of Galactic Sinnoh. It's mostly me here and everyone in it. I do the best I can to unite us as a city but it's been hard with the unemployment of city on the rise." Medgar looked down, sullenly.

"But that's enough banter. You came here for a gym battle and that's what were gonna do." His faced quickly changed from saddened to happy as he led me to an arena hidden behind the network of trees that flourished inside the gym. It was a lot longer on the inside than I first noticed. Medgar walked to the far end of the gym and Rotom and I took our stand in a small rectangular box outlined for the challenger.

"This is my first gym challenge, Aria. I hope it's as good as I'd think it to be." He smiled from all the way across the arena as he threw his pokeball, releasing his Chikorita.

"I've got four pokemon today, Aria. Do you think you can handle them with Rotom?" Medgar said, raising his fist.

"I've got a surprise for you, today." I said grinning broadly. At that he explained the rules of the gym battle, declaring that I would get the first move and that I was the only one who could make substitutions. I would be facing against four pokemon as opposed to the three in my last battle.

"Whenever you're ready, Aria." Medgar called to me from his spot. Rotom moved to the arena and faced the Chikorita. Chikorita jumped up in excitement and I called over to Rotom, asking if he was ready. He released a buzz and I initiated the battle with an Ominous Wind. Rotom generated a murky gust of ghost energy that missed Chikorita by a hair as she retaliated with a Razor Leaf. The leaves struck Rotom but he was able to shake it off and execute a perfect Discharge.

"Dodge it!" Medgar called and Chikorita jumped into the air so elegantly, and the burst of blue light was absorbed into the ground behind where it used to stand. Chikorita used another Razor Leaf from midair and this time, Rotom was able to dodge all of the leaves before they could strike while also preparing another Discharge at closer proximity than from before. I knew Electric-type attacks weren't as effective against Grass pokemon but I knew if I paralyzed the pokemon, it wouldn't be able move so quickly.

I tuned out everything around me and just focused on the battle as Rotom dispensed another Discharge attack that finally struck Chikorita without paralyzing it. Medgar was astonished that Chikorita wasn't able to dodge the attack and asked it to use Synthesis. The Chikorita was able to heal itself a little bit and I could tell Medgar was about to ask it to use the move again when I ordered Rotom to use an Ominous Wind that violently thrashed Chikorita that caused it to faint after the wind had passed.

"Ah, the lack of sunlight didn't allow Chikorita to heal properly. Looks like the weather is in your favor today, Aria." Medgar smiled. I returned his smile with a congratulatory giggle and asked Rotom if a break was in order. He shook his head no and I told Medgar we were ready to continue. He threw his second ball and a Roselia emerged from a white light. It stretched its rosy arms and looked at its opponent. Rotom was awaiting my next command and we started again. This time Roselia prepared for an attack by spinning away from a Discharge attack. Medgar had Roselia use a Magical Leaf and Rotom wasn't able to dodge but was able to remain afloat after suffering significant damage from that attack.

"Confuse Ray!" I called. Rotom looked back at me once and I nodded confirming my decision. Rotom gathered all of his focus and actually released a well-created ball of energy. When it hit Roselia, the pokemon just wandered aimlessly on the grassy meadow, unable to hear the call from its trainer.

"Magical Leaf! Magical Leaf? Are you even listening?" Medgar scratched his head when Roselia tumbled onto the grass unable to stand any longer. I had Rotom use an Ominous Wind twice before Roselia wasn't able to stand up again.

"Wow your Rotom is really good!" Medgar called from his place. "But what I have in store will test the limits of his abilities." Medgar smiled and returned his Roselia, then he threw his third pokeball and released a Grovyle, who stood valiantly to defend itself. Without thinking I had Rotom use another Ominous Wind, but Grovyle was able to dodge the attack completely, then strike Rotom with a vicious Leaf Blade. Rotom stumbled backwards in the air and collapsed onto the ground. After a moment, he rose up again and I had him use another Confuse Ray.

"Dodge, then use Pursuit!" Medgar called pointing his finger at the ball of confusing light. Grovyle easily got out of the way before the confusion attack could do any damage and struck Rotom hard with its body. Rotom could take no more and fainted on the ground. I gasped, but returned Rotom who was able to knock out two of Medgar's pokemon. Maybe Dusknoir could do the same.

"Does that mean it's over?" Medgar called over.

"I've got one more!" I replied back to him. I grabbed into my backpack and procured a pokeball I hadn't had a chance to use yet but I was thinking this would be the time to test him.

Dusknoir appeared from his pokeball and stood to face Medgar's Grovyle in a startling but brave stance. I knew the move Pursuit was deadly and could knockout Ghost and Psychic pokemon easily, but Dusknoir is a big pokemon and I think his bulk would protect him anything Grovyle could dish out. The only moves I knew Dusknoir possessed where Shadow Punch and Fire Punch.

Dusknoir turned back to me and looked ready for a fight. "Alright, Dusknoir let's see what you can do!" I yelled out to him. Medgar was in a ready stance and awaited my next attack as his Grovyle was leaning forward, preparing for the next battle.

"Let's start off with a Shadow Punch!" I yelled at the entire gym. Dusknoir, despite his tail could float mildly in the air and lunged full force at Grovyle, who tried to dodge the attack. Dusknoir just wasn't fast enough to catch the pokemon. But that was the plan. I wanted Grovyle and Medgar to realize they had a speed advantage because Dusknoir had an ace up his sleeve and I was counting on Medgar to say the very next words.

"Pursuit, now!" Medgar called out to his Grass pokemon, who lunged at Dusknoir. Medgar looked confused when I didn't tell Dusknoir to move and gasped at what happened next. Dusknoir timed the attack perfectly in his mind and just as Grovyle was about to collide I yelled for Dusknoir to use a Fire Punch. The Grovyle jerked backwards and slammed into a tree about thirty feet from its initial launch zone. Before it could get away, Dusknoir used a Shadow Punch and silenced the pokemon.

"Are you kidding me? That was so clever of you, though!" Medgar called out to us.

"Haha! Yeah!" I cried in excitement. "Great job Dusknoir, I'm really proud of you." Medgar shook his head and I knew he still had one more pokemon left.

"This is the prize right here, Aria you'd better not slack off or you'll be sorry." Medgar threw his fourth and final ball when it released a pokemon I had never seen before. I was really confused when I saw the pokemon's hands. Or rather it had three leaves extending from its arms that I just assumed were hands. They were just leaves. I mean Dusknoir, a Ghost pokemon even has hands. The pokemon was also very fury and had long, spiky white hair on its head that dragged on the ground when it walked around on its stilt-like feet.

"Aria. This is my partner, Shifty." Medgar looked at me contently, as though he knew this was the end of the line. "Shifty is one part Grass-type one part Dark-type so you'd better watch out or it's game over in a second's notice." I admit I was panicking at this point. We were just down one pokemon each. Dusknoir's battle against Medgar's Grovyle didn't seem to wear it out and that's good because we're going to need all the energy we can get to take down this menacing pokemon. Shiftry roared and looked angrily at Dusknoir like it was just asking to get knocked around by the pokemon's leafy hands.

"Dusknoir show me what else you can do." I asked the pokemon, nervous and unable to think of a strategy. The pokemon looked tough and fast and Dusknoir would get thrashed around if I didn't think of something. To show that Dusknoir had understood me he launched an inaccurate beam of flames at Shiftry and at first I didn't understand what the move was but after Shiftry jumped into the air the beam burned the grass. I understood the move as Will-O-Wisp. That move instantly causes a burn but getting it to hit Shiftry might be a different story in itself. Medgar knows that if he tries a direct hit on Dusknoir I'll use a Fire-type move and Shiftry could suffer a huge hit, but at the same time none of Dusknoir's moves are capable of keeping up with a fast pokemon like Shiftry.

"Interesting move you got there, Aria. That's Will-O-Wisp if I'm not mistaken." Medgar looked at me and smiled.

"Yeah I wasn't sure what else Dusknoir knew so I just asked him to fire off whatever he could manage." I smiled back at him confidently, but secretly sweating my organs out. I was so close to this last victory but the type disadvantage I'm faced with is rather hampering. I breathed in a couple of times and before I could regain some composure, Shiftry sprinted at Dusknoir full force. Before Shiftry got too close, Medgar called for a Leaf Storm. Dusknoir prepped itself but couldn't dodge the monstrous leaf attack dealt by Shiftry. It conjured up hundreds of leaves that exploded into Dusknoir hitting the pokemon with tens of leaves per second, ultimately causing Dusknoir to lose his balance temporarily, but instead of finishing him off Shiftry moved back.

"Leaf Storm causes some difficulty to the user, I forgot about that." Medgar chuckled.

"Dusknoir, hurry can you get back up?" I coaxed the pokemon. Dusknoir stood back up, but with great difficulty and I felt like the show was over on the next attack. I would have to train more after this battle to make my Ghost pokemon stronger. I thought about my shame for not being able to win this battle and it motivated me to at least try and win because I was just so close.

"I believe in you Dusknoir, anything you do from now on, I have complete faith in." I said to him. Suddenly, Shiftry was out of sight and I saw it was above using a Faint Attack from the air, aimed directly at Dusknoir. The move Faint Attack was particularly deadly because it couldn't be dodged and Shiftry was just overhead, beginning to descend when Dusknoir fired another Will-O-Wisp that struck its mark perfectly, but Shiftry still pursued its target and hit Dusknoir really hard, but not enough to defeat him. Dusknoir wobbled with exhaustion and I wondered why Shiftry wasn't able to finish him off.

Then Shiftry ran at Dusknoir again, trying to strike it with its leafy hands, and Dusknoir was able to dodge two but not the third and took a strike to the stomach from Shiftry arms. I couldn't see past Dusknoir's dark body but Medgar's face told me that Dusknoir had grabbed hold of Shiftry and I saw him raise his arm again. Dusknoir's palm began glowing with fire and Shiftry was desperately trying to evade the impending attack but to no avail. Dusknoir's attack hit its mark, releasing Shiftry just before the impact and the pokemon tumbled backwards.

Both pokemon had now sustained a lot of heavy damage from the other. Shiftry, I could tell was running on its last legs because the fire damage it sustained was tremendous. Dusknoir had taken a lot of damage from Shiftry's Dark attacks and was showing signs of fatigue. Medgar and I were also very tense at this point. Our pokemon seemed evenly matched because of Shiftry's type advantage and Dusknoir's bulky defense. I saw Medgar wipe sweat from his brow as he commanded Shiftry over to him and I called over to Dusknoir asking him if he was okay. The battle wasn't over though.

"Faint Attack, let's go!" Medgar called to Shiftry who jolted after Dusknoir again. Dusknoir raised both its arms in an "X" to block most of the attack and shifted forward when Shiftry tried hitting him from the side. To my surprise, Dusknoir quickly turned to meet Shiftry after it had passed and used a Shadow Punch to push it forward, but not enough to cause significant damage. I hated thinking this but it seemed like Dusknoir had more intelligence that even Rotom in battle. It led me to believe that Dusknoir's former trainer had left it with a substantial dexterity that I couldn't teach to Rotom. I wasn't aware the Dusknoir was capable of agile movements with his disabled body but his trainer surely made this Dusknoir's greatest strength.

I saw Dusknoir flinch mid-battle and called out to him asking if he was okay. This was probably it, if Dusknoir gets hit with another Faint Attack, this battle was over and my shot at the second gym was over. I knew losing would mean I would have to train but what would I train Dusknoir? I didn't know what to do and I was losing morale at the sight of my injured pokemon. Dusknoir regained its fighting stance after hearing my voice again.

"Dusknoir, can you use Fire Punch one more time?" I said to Dusknoir as Medgar was asking Shiftry if it was okay to continue. Shiftry looked at Dusknoir with pain in its face as it was suffering from a burn and I almost regret hurting the pokemon after dealing with enough burns in my life. Dusknoir and Shiftry looked at each other and awaited the next command from the trainers. In pure synchronization the two pokemon began running at each other. Shiftry was fast and looked like it had enough speed to just use momentum to strike back Dusknoir.

"Faint Attack!"

"Fire Punch!"

The two pokemon ran at each other just about to ram the other. Shiftry used its whole body in a dastardly Dark-type attack that was very effective against a Ghost pokemon and it already hit its mark once, again just might knock Dusknoir out. Dusknoir was airborne now, able to glide through the air despite his bulky weight and both pokemon slammed into the other. Shiftry used a little more energy towards the end and struck Dusknoir, causing both pokemon to engage in a static collision. Both pokemon were hurled towards me and I noticed Dusknoir grabbed onto Shiftry while they were in the air, about to hit the ground. Dusknoir flipped Shiftry so that he was on top of the Grass pokemon and used a Fire Punch, smashing Shiftry into the ground. Medgar's mouth was dropped to the ground when he saw his pokemon in a hole in the ground caused by the colossal impact. Shiftry was definitely knocked out but Dusknoir was on the ground nearby, but looking up at us. It collapsed momentarily and we both just returned our pokemon and looked at each other, then I looked at the hole where Shiftry's body was.

"Unbelievable." Medgar said as we exited the pokemon center with our pokemon healed and we walked through the city as Rotom floated above my head, healthy again.

"Grovyle knew a Dark attack and Shiftry was part Dark and I still wasn't able to beat you. You are something you know that?" Medgar looked at me.

"Dusknoir has wicked defenses and I guess it helped that he managed to burn your Shiftry before it was able to do much more damage." I looked at him trying to figure things out. Medgar just looked at me and smiled. We embraced in the middle of the street and I silently cheered for myself for being able to single-handedly defeat two gym leaders without rematch. I thought that was just impossible. Little did I know my pokemon were a lot stronger than I had pinned them for. Rotom and I have trained and been partners together for a significant part of my life. Dusknoir was also a former trainer's partner and knew a thing or two about battle. What surprised me the most was when Dusknoir was able to flip Shiftry and himself, despite being stricken by a Faint Attack. And I would hate to be on the receiving end of one of Dusknoir's Fire Punches.

Medgar looked at me as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny badge. He told me the Forest Badge was the symbol of my victory here. This marked the second Gym Leader who used a Dark pokemon against me and I was able to push through to the end. Wilbur Underwood's Tyranitar was a beast and a force to be reckoned with, but Rotom used Carmela's low speed to his advantage, and was able to pull through despite his disadvantage. And here against Medgar's Shiftry, Dusknoir's powerful defensive capabilities proved useful against a partially Dark pokemon. I honestly didn't want to think Rotom wouldn't have been able to take on Shiftry because Rotom didn't have Dusknoir's wit or huge defenses but Rotom definitely had more power in terms of attacks.

Medgar took me back to his house after it started raining again and Rotom floated back to my room to take a relaxing break. Medgar reminded me of how happy he was that I won and took me into his elegant kitchen.

"You better not have held back, Medgar or I swear." I looked at him seriously. We were standing in the center of the room and he rested his hand on the island beside us.

"You saw me out there. I gave it my all. In fact I was sure Shiftry's attack power was enough to knockout Dusknoir in one hit. You proved me wrong, Aria." I just looked at the badge resting in my hands and then I looked up at Medgar. He looked at me with his blazing blue eyes and I pulled him closer to my body. I placed my hand on his hip, bringing my face and his together. Before he could say anything we made out in his kitchen for a good ten seconds, but suddenly he pulled away from me, blushing.

"I'm really sorry." He said to me. I was stunned in my spot and a wave of panic and regret arose in my body. Was it too soon? What if I scared him? I'm not that ugly, am I?

"Medgar, please forgive me I'm truly sorry for that it won't happen again, you're a gym leader and you deserve better I'm sorry please don't hate me." I begged him for his forgiveness feeling horrible with myself.

"Aria."

"Please just kick me out I feel awful." I turned away from him, almost starting to cry at my stupidity. I just felt really dumb for trying to get closer to him but he was just so attractive that I couldn't resist. His clothes were so stylish and the way he composed himself was so familiar that I just felt it was the right moment to do something.

"Aria, please it's okay." Medgar walked in front of me and I just looked away. "I get it you were excited and that's just a natural human tendency." He smiled warmly at me. I returned his smile with a frown and my sorry eyes.

"Are you sure? Can I make it up to you?" I would try anything to get past this really awkward moment in any way I possibly could, to make it up to Medgar. He was someone who was different in this new world and I didn't want to mess it up. I've thought about this before and there's something magnetic about him that I couldn't quite put my finger on. And for this reason I would try everything to make it up to him.

"So we're good?" I looked at him.

"Yeah we are." He chuckled a little. "But I don't think he would appreciate you kissing me very much." He continued giggling. I looked a little confused now.

"Who wouldn't appreciate that?" I just looked at him.

"My boyfriend."


	9. Chapter 9 - The Collapsed Bridge

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 9: The Collapsed Bridge

I set off from Eterna City that afternoon, after winning my gym battle and after that awkward moment with Medgar. Everything seemed to be in order except I didn't know he was actually gay. Rotom floated nearby and was confused when I had told him about it, but Rotom didn't care we were just psyched to have won another badge. In place of a bike path that used to be here, the bridge had collapsed long ago. I looked all the way across to where the bridge would have connected to a building, but now there was just a large expanse of land and a huge mess of rubble on the ground below. A staircase lowered us to the ground level and the first thing to my left was a cave I did not feel like exploring.

The Wayward Cave was a place people go to find new pokemon, and to train their partners. I don't know about Rotom but I wasn't feeling like going through some rotting cave after what we had just gone through. Apparently, a section of the cave was gone forever because of the collapsed bridge and Medgar warned me not to disturb any of the pokemon or people here because this was where the undesirables roamed. There were people who committed heinous crimes against Team Galactic and were deemed unsafe in the protection of Eterna City. Not even the homeless shelter could protect them from being cracked down by the Galactics. They flourished in this land because Team Galactic is unable to track them down. They would just hide among the rubble or run off into the mountains, never to be seen again.

These so called separatists wanted nothing more than to find a home in Society Sinnoh, but the Society has strict laws on immigrants from Galactic Sinnoh. Most don't ever make it in and there's a tough checkpoint near Floaroma and the northern gate of Oreburgh that ensure nobody from Galactic Sinnoh could sneak in. I remember hearing about it in the news that two bodies were found near the gates of Oreburgh, shot down by the Society who identified to be "Galactic Terrorists" when we all knew that wasn't true. They were probably trying to escape the desolation of Team Galactic's reign only to find solace in their deaths.

We walked through grassy plains, avoiding debris that had never been cleared up and even passing by some thugs who were gathered around a flaming garbage can performing some sort of demonic ritual. I noticed Rotom was looking at them with partial animosity, but Rotom and I kept walking and maintained our distance as we nearly avoided a poor confrontation with those thugs. Later up ahead, I could see up ahead a trainer practicing with a Buizel. He and his Buizel were working out in a clearing behind some trees and I could see the blue tracksuit he wore as well as the colorful body of his pokemon. Rotom and I passed by them without a seconds hesitation as we began descending on stairs that led upward. The trainer said something to his Buizel that I heard from behind us, and without turning around I climbed more of the stairs.

Mt. Coronet was only a short distance away and Medgar warned me to avoid sharp rocks and the water where dangerous pokemon lurked. He said the path leading to Hearthome City would be quick and painless and I took his word on it with a smile. The feeling of getting to travel back to Society Sinnoh made me warm on the inside because after the hostile interaction I had with Team Galactic, I'm happy to return to the Society.

Rotom turned to me as we were walking and we started talking about what had just befallen us back in Eterna. After the awkward moment with Medgar had been dealt with, I told him there wasn't anything for me to do in this city any longer.

"You don't wanna stay and I could show you around some more?" He said looking at me with blue eyes that held my attention right where I stood in his living room. Rotom and I looked at each other and agreed telepathically that this place wasn't for us and Hearthome awaited us. I did, however, see the spirit the resided in Medgar's eyes which ignited a spark in my soul that forced me to give into his request.

I wasn't sure why but this thing inside me has been telling me that this person, Medgar, the Grass Gym Leader was alright, that he was someone I should hold on to. I also felt this way with that goth girl with the Gengar that took down Rotom with a single Shadow Ball. These people just felt, I don't know, different and their magnetic personalities intrigued me as I trekked through Sinnoh. I was never exposed to such people back in my calm town. My friends back at home just felt warm and normal as opposed to here where I felt different from everybody else. Rotom was my reminder of home and a little bit of me felt uneasy when all the time. The rest of me felt right at home.

"We really should be going, Medgar, but I'll give you time of day. Before we leave do you take us to the homeless shelter and say goodbye to everyone?" Rotom bounced in the air happily and Medgar was obliged to take us there one last time. I walked beside him and my Electric pokemon as we wandered through the city streets as it seemed like I wouldn't be back to this place in a long time. A couple walking by us waved at Medgar and I as Medgar looked with his blue eyes at the homeless shelter on the other side of the street while we walked. We seemed to talk what seemed like an infinite number of words before we got to the quiet establishment. I talked to him about what he'd do in his next gym challenge and he talked to me about doing things different with his Shiftry so that a Dusknoir doesn't completely annihilate his strategy.

"I hate saying this but you know how I told you about Dusknoir's old trainer?" I looked onward. Medgar turned his head to me as we continued walking.

"Yeah?"

"I think this Dusknoir learned a lot of crazy battle strategies from that trainer and remembered them during our battle." I looked down.

"That's awesome, what are you saying?" Medgar looked at me excitedly with his blue eyes and I wondered why he was so happy. I would feel shame if I lost to a small challenger from another world, but Medgar was feeling joy and delight in being around me. A wave of realization hit me that I was being really selfish and tried removing that from our conversation.

"I wouldn't have won, that's all."

"On the contrary, Aria. You told me that Dusknoir hasn't had a trainer in decades."

"Right."

"So you must be such a great trainer that the Dusknoir remembered his adventures with his former trainer and remembered some useful moves from all those years ago." I laughed and put my hand on Medgar's shoulder. He smiled and shook his head at me and Rotom just stared at us like we were peasants as he floated near us while we walked.

"I'm serious." He said trying to pull the smile from his face, but being unable to do so.

"Pokemon develop a serious connection with their trainers and even though Dusknoir's former trainer... you know... died... he saw you as a worthy trainer and you took him in. He trusts you and would do anything for you because you saved him." He looked at me seriously now, his smile was gone. I nodded and looked onward. Rotom blinked at me, then looked at Medgar but still floated onward, unaffected by the moment that had just taken place. The shelter was in sight now and the three of us walked nearer to it.

"Rotom and I would do anything for each other, that much I know. There's a bond between us that I can't ever feel with anyone else. Like our spirits are bound together forever. I would give my life for him in a heartbeat and I know he would do the same." I looked my Ghost pokemon and we smiled at each other. Medgar approached the doors to the shelter and an eerie wind blew through us as it entered the quiet homeless facility. I could tell on Medgar's face that something was amiss.

"Mrs. Lewis isn't at the front desk." Medgar inquired. Mrs. Lewis was the woman in charge of the shelter and provided safe protection of all its recipients. The front room of the shelter had just her desk in the front. Her things: her computer, files, notebooks, pencils, erasers, staplers were all intact but she was nowhere to be found. Medgar and I walked into the dining hall and were in shock at the scene. The whole room was in disarray, tables broken in half, debris everywhere and no people in sight.

"Is anybody here?" Medgar said to the room where Rotom and I were looking at the room. We were horrified when we heard a faint whimpering sound coming from a pile of debris near the exit. Upon further inspection it was my acquaintance Old Mags, cowering behind the garbage.

"Oh. I thought you were Team Galactic." She rose up from the ground with trouble. Her hands were trembling and I could see her face was pale and her voice was shaky.

"Team Galactic did this?" I said with power. I couldn't believe they'd attack this peaceful place. It's their fault people are impoverished because of their protection fee, but attacking the defenseless people infuriates me.

"We're gonna go have a word with the Galactics." I looked at Medgar who nodded. "Mags, is everyone else safe?"

"No. The people in spacesuits came in and nabbed them all good. They used their pokemon to destroy the place and I think they were headed to the Galactic Headquarters building near the wall."

Medgar took Mags to his house and told her to remain put. I got a head start on the Galactic building. Medgar said the headquarters was located underneath Commander Jupiter's study. I knew exactly what that looked like and went onward. I ran through the city until I was running on a sandy surface and the huge barricade was before me. Geraldine's private building was on a higher elevation than the ground I was at, so I had to ascend the sandy surface. Rotom and I followed the very steep trail up towards Jupiter's private quarters when I looked back and saw the rising city behind me. If it weren't for the crisis at hand, I would've stopped to marvel at the beauty of the skyline. Below us on the sandy ground, a grunt yelled after us. His Croagunk ran very quickly up the sandy slope and I was forced to stop and battle it before it could attack us with its poisonous fingertips.

"Stop there!" He shouted after me. Rotom turned around mid-float and used a Discharge on both the Croagunk and its trainer and they tumbled down the sandy slope, only to stop when they both struck a barrier.

The entrance to the place was desolate. I couldn't get the door open and had Rotom use another Discharge to blast open the door. Two more Galactics inside where startled and sprang into action. Two Carnivine flew out from the door before me and attacked us. Rotom used an Ominous Wind to blow them away and used a Discharge on one of the Grass pokemon. The other Carnivine appeared in front of me and prepared to use a Bite on me. I backed up, unable to protect myself while Rotom dealt with the other Carnivine when a shadowy body emerged out of nowhere and struck the Carnivine with its body. I identified the pokemon as Medgar's Shiftry.

I looked around but couldn't find Medgar so I asked his Shiftry where he was and his pokemon pointed back to the city. Medgar was on his way but thought I could use some help. I can help myself.

Rotom fried the other Carnivine so the three of us ran in, the Grunts were on hiding from us now and I looked for a door that wasn't there.

"One of you open the door! Now!" I yelled. One of the scared grunts got off the ground looking frightfully at Shiftry and pushed a button underneath the table, opening a staircase on the floor. I had Medgar's Shiftry and my Dusknoir keep an eye on these Grunts until Medgar came back. Rotom and I descended the dark staircase and I used Rotom's light to illuminate the way until he turned a corner. When I turned the same corner we were met with a brightened, metallic headquarters with some Grunts working. I ran down the rest of the stairs with Rotom and ducked behind a large computer when two talking grunts passed by us not noticing we had entered their sanctuary.

We ran down the metallic floor and as the grunts were busily working on computers near the side wall, I ran past them, avoiding anyone at all costs. When we came to the door it opened automatically and we continued running. However we ran into my favorite Galactic operative, Murphy Varin. He was startled when I ran into him and then his face grew hot with frustration.

"It's you." He said angrily. He ran for the door but Rotom zapped him. Then he turned around, winced in pain and released a pokemon from his pokeball.

"So you wanna play like that?" Varin stared at me. Varin unleashed a vile Swalot that oozed as soon as I appeared from its pokeball. Swalot looked at Rotom and voraciously grinned at Rotom, as though he was to become Swalot's next meal. I ordered Rotom to use a Discharge and it struck the Swalot dead center in the belly, but the Swalot looked almost unharmed.

"You pitiful little child. Swalot, use a Sludge Bomb and show them oblivion!" Varin roared. His Swalot puffed up its stomach and prepared to blast myself and Rotom with a deadly Sludge Bomb attack. Of course Rotom wouldn't be affected by poison because he's a Ghost-type but I'm not so lucky. I backed away again and this time there was no Shiftry to save me. The Swalot unleashed a massive load of poisonous material at me while Rotom desperately tried to shield me with his own body, most of the poison went through him and splattered on the floor near me. I jumped out of the way before most of the poison could hurt me, but some did splash on me and it burned to the touch. When I tried getting it off me it just spread to my hands and burned even more. I winced with pain and fell on my knees. The ooze leaked near me and I flinched with pain as I crawled away from the liquid poison.

"Rotom..." I said with great difficulty. I coughed, unable to utter words because the burning feeling was so mighty. "Use Ominous Wind." Rotom obeyed without question and Varin and his Swalot were blasted back, through the automatic door and into the lab smashing things as they flew along. Then Rotom floated to me, trying to coax me back up. I looked into the laboratory and saw the grunts gathered around their lieutenant and as the door closed, I gasped again because of the brutal burns I had sustained.

"I can't. It hurts too much." I wept. My body was in complete pain.

"This is not good. What'll we do?" Rotom became supremely tense when he saw I began to cry a little. When two grunts ran into the hallway we were in, Rotom used a Discharge on both their pokemon and they ran back into their lab, unsuccessful.

"I will protect you, no matter what. They will have to bind my spirit to a boulder before I'll let them get to you." I released a painful laugh followed by more waves of agonizing burns.

"You need to go find Dusknoir get help, Rotom." I looked at him. His back was to me and I saw his electric shoulders were tense as he waited for more grunts and their pokemon. Rotom was my hero and protected me with his life. I almost could reach out to him with my arm if it hadn't been burning like I had just come out a kindling furnace.

"That's not happening. I refuse to leave your side."

"Please. I'm not able to fight anymore I need to get out of here." Rotom turned to me as I said this. He was so conflicted at this moment, I almost felt sorry for him if it hadn't been the torment I was undergoing. If he stayed and protected me, I would suffer more, but if he left and went to get help I would be further endangered when in my weakened state and alone.

"Aria. I don't know about this." Just as he said this, the automatic doors opened Shiftry and Dusknoir bolted through, into the hallway where Rotom and I were. Behind them Medgar ran and his blue eyes broke open when he saw my condition. He ran up to me and I shooed him away.

"Medgar no, there's poison all over me and you'll get burned if you touch me." I coughed and flinched again in agonizing pain. I moaned and toppled to my side, when I heard Medgar release a pokemon. Shiftry, Rotom and Dusknoir all watched as Medgar's Roselia waddled up to me.

"Aromatherapy, quickly, please!" Medgar said to his Roselia when he spread out his twin roses and showered me with glittering powder. My pain had subsided and I felt no more the effects of the poison. Rotom regained color in his face when Medgar helped me sit up and I didn't wince from the damage, but that feeling was forever branded into my skull. I would never forget the pain I had just felt. Once something like that happens to you. It becomes a scar on your body, whether physical or mental. I possessed both types. Thinking about this made me tear up even more and Medgar just sat next to me, amid the chaos around us.

"I dealt with all the grunts back in there. Your Dusknoir was invaluable to us getting here, you know." He smiled and wiped a tear from my cheek. I looked up at Dusknoir as he modestly put his hand behind his head and his yellow belly chuckled. Rotom also smiled at me and floated happily again when I laughed a little, too. Life returned to me when I could see my pokemon were happy and I realized we weren't finished here.

"We need to go." I said getting up. Medgar pulled on my leg, to regress. He said in my weakened state I wasn't fit to conduct anymore battles.

"What about the people Team Galactic kidnapped?" Medgar this isn't the time to argue now let's go, I pulled his arm and he sprang up. We avoided the sludge, flowing next to us as we ran through the long narrow hallway which felt like we were running through an eternity until the six of us reached another automatic door, this time to a huge room lined with cells full of people. They were all people I knew and some of them I didn't even recognize. A small group of grunts noticed us and ran at us with their pokemon. In a matter of seconds a Houndour, Keckleon, Hypno and Cloyster were facing all of our pokemon.

"Roselia, use Giga Drain." Roselia ran after the Cloyster and drained it of its energy. I asked Dusknoir to use a Shadow Punch on the Hypno. Then a huge battle ensued between a total of eight pokemon and six trainers. The entire room was silent except for the grunting pokemon and the words of a command everywhere seconds, overlapping. A Tri-Attack had nearly missed Rotom and it used an Ominous Wind on the pokemon. A Keckleon ran through Rotom's attack and used a Mega Punch on Medgar's Shiftry, who immediately used a Faint Attack and knocked the chameleon pokemon back.

"Hypno, use Psychic!" A Galactic Grunt called from behind another, cowering. His Hypno raised its hypnotic tool and looked at Medgar's Roselia, but before any attack could be used, Dusknoir used another Shadow Punch and the Hypno fell over, faint. The Houndour barked and sprang at Dusknoir, but Shiftry struck it down with its leafy hands and used another Faint Attack followed by a Leaf Tornado.

We all stood in silence as the faint pokemon were retreated back into their pokeballs and the four grunts ran away through the entrance we had come from in panic. I looked to the prisoners and saw many old and many sickly from the harsh treatments these fiends had done unto them.

"Over there!" Medgar pointed. We all ran after him and stopped before a cage. Inside of it was a woman who was hunched over, crying into her hands. Medgar tried to shake the woman back to reality and she immediately regained life when she saw Medgar.

"Mrs. Lewis!" Medgar gripped the bars of the cage. We all stepped back as Shiftry sliced through the bars, as though they were bread and Mrs. Lewis got up from her spot and ran over to us. She told us of how the Galactic grunts came into the shelter seeking more money from them. The shelter wasn't paying dues to Team Galactic and they were "forced" to take precautions and arrest the people inside.

Medgar and I looked at each other, before running in completely opposite directions, liberating people from cages with our Ghost and Grass pokemon. I saw his Roselia behind me slice through metal bars and an old man was elated to be free. I freed many people with the help of Dusknoir's fiery punches and it didn't take us too long before everyone in the dungeon was freed. Medgar and I rounded up all the people in a small group of bodies and looked around the rest of the room. There was another door leading further into the fortification. Medgar asked Mrs. Lewis if she knew where that door led and the only thing she told us was that a dark-skinned woman had gone through that door after spitting into her cage.

After some persuasion, I got Medgar to lead the freed prisoners to the city in a huge march of freedom while I pursued Commander Jupiter. Dusknoir, Rotom and I ran past empty cages and reached the bolted door. Dusknoir was able to break through the door and we came into a smaller room where three more grunts got up and had minds to attack us.

"Don't." A familiar, female voice was heard. I looked to the center of the room and behind a chair, I could see the the top of a head that sported long curly, brown hair. The woman was typing something on the large computer in front of her and stopped. She turned herself to face me and once again I was acquainted with the make-up stained face of Geraldine Swan, better known as Commander Jupiter.

"Aria." She smiled and stood looking at me. She walked down three steps so that she was directly in front of me and held up her arm as the grunts vacated the room for us. At this time I was sensing a battle would take place.

"We can't forgive you for what you've done today, you know that?" She crossed her arms.

"I've had it with you Galactics. I've gone through enough to have to clean up the mess you've caused." I stepped closer to her and spat my words like daggers aimed at Geraldine's colorful face.

"Oh I was watching you when that Sludge Bomb infected you, Aria. It made my coffee taste better when you were crying on the floor." She cackled. Rotom and Dusknoir tensed up when she was laughing and I narrowed my eyes in hatred when she stopped and stared straight at us.

"Today isn't the day that we fight, Aria. But you can bet your little Ghost pokemon that later one when we next meet that I will take you down myself. You will regret coming into this place and making Team Galactic look like a bunch of fools. You will not interfere with our goals. We are at war for crying out loud and you, a mere child thinks she can meddle with the affairs with adults? The insolence." She still crossed her arms, but her ferocious smile changed into an ugly frown that held my pokemon and I still.

"How about I show you what my pokemon can do, Jupiter." I said to her. Rotom floated before me and I could already tell he was about to use a Discharge on the woman.

"Are you still calling me that? Only the newly chosen baby grunts call me by that name. It's because I fill the position of a woman from long ago." She said, still looking at me. I told her I didn't care and she just nodded her head at me. Rotom floated a little closer before releasing a dazzling blue light that was about to strike Geraldine.

Almost an instant before it could hit her, a huge boulder-shaped rock fell from the ceiling and cracked the ground where it had dropped. The rock sprouted arms and I discovered, to my horror that the rock was a pokemon. The Discharge attack was just absorbed into the Pokemon's back and it jumped from its position back into the burrow it was nesting in. Geraldine was gone as well. My pokemon and I ran over to the spot she was standing in and we saw the faint light of a glimmering sun as the hole from which we were looking at it shined down to us as we stood in the basement watching it.

Medgar and I spent the next hour or so relocating people back to their homes and helped clean up the shelter with Mrs. Lewis. When things looked where they should be, we left the establishment and Medgar asked why I looked so uneasy.

"I hate that woman with a burning passion." I said not looking at him or his blue eyes. When he asked who I told him about my second confrontation with Geraldine Swan. He nodded when I told him about the burly pokemon whose image I couldn't make any sense of but Medgar told me that pokemon must have been a Ground-type because of how it absorbed the Electric attack.

"I still can't believe they had the audacity to do that to their own citizens." I looked at Medgar who also shook his head at the ground, sporting a serious frown.

"They've committed a heinous crime today. It's my responsibility as Gym Leader to protect these people from harm. Team Galactic is supposed to me policing the rules of the city, not punishing those who don't pay their protection fees." Medgar continued shaking his head. We kept walking and I just talked to him about our experience in that rat hole. I talked for a few seconds about the treacherous poison that befell me and thanked Medgar again for being there to save me. If Medgar wasn't there I don't know what we would've done.

It was twelve o'clock to the minute when I left Eterna City. Medgar walked me to the building that once held many people excited to ride their bicycles down the newly constructed bridge. He told me that the view is still breath-taking but sad to look at. The bridge was in millions of pieces on the ground below but you could still see the other building connecting to city to a route the led one way to Oreburgh City and another way to Mt. Coronet.

Medgar warned me about the people I might find down there who were evading Team Galactic. Medgar said some of the people we liberated would return to the cold, unsafe refuge of the collapsed bridge as their only solace. Those people were true criminals but there was no way I would be able to tell so we just rescued them all. I was embarrassed to hear that I had unleashed criminals into the city and also realized that Team Galactic was doing something right, by keeping them out of the city.

Most of the criminals lived in packs in the valley created by the collapsed bridge in homeless groups that fended for themselves. At least in the shelter people had a nice play to stay that provided warmth and food unlike the harsh cold environment of the valley, despite the season of summer.

We hugged for a long time and I said to the back of his head that I would definitely return to visit. He told me that he would be keeping a closer eye on the activities of Team Galactic and he would increase his responsibility as Gym Leader to protecting the people of his city.

"Stay on the ground, though okay?" I said looking at his tantalizing blue eyes. He smiled at me and sent me off to the wasteland following Eterna City's modern appearance.

Rotom and I walked on the trail away from Eterna City and saw down a large hill, the bustling city of Oreburgh. I saw the gates with Society guards patrolling them with pokemon next to them, dressed in Society garb. I turned away from the familiar environment and looked up at the peaks of snowy mountains. Rotom and I identified the biggest one, Mt. Coronet and we approached a cave. The cave itself wasn't too bad to get through. Medgar told me to avoid the water inside the cave and pursue the quick trail between the rocky steps. I climbed over some uneven rocky surfaces but I was able to find the other side of the cave with ease.

Inside the cave, there was bountiful light and I saw a single Crobat nesting on a ledge, sleeping soundly. I also saw a family of Geodude and a Golem keeping them safe with its round body up top on a section of the cave I would have to have used the rocky steps to reach. Rotom and I talked a little when we were navigating the rocks to reach the end of the small cave and I was really excited to be back home in Society Sinnoh.

"It's not like we're home or anything." Rotom said, not looking at me but floating around stalactites that reached like claws from the tall ceiling above.

"It definitely beats being in that hellhole." I said. "I'm kind of excited to be around people that will treat me respectfully unlike that grunt who shot me with a Sludge Bomb."

"Yeah." Rotom said as we crossed that last rock keeping us from the end of the cave.


	10. Chapter 10 - End of the World

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 10: End of the World

Rotom and I traveled along on a bridge across to another small, rocky hill until three steps later where we had to cross another bridge. After we crossed the second bridge, I saw the ground below and Hearthome City was in the distance, far away. I looked back at Rotom and smiled, then we began trekking to Hearthome again. Rotom commented on the lovely sunset and I asked him what he thought about when we were in Geraldine's chamber. The conversation lit up our walk and we even hypothesized that Geraldine was doing something sneaky back in that chamber. I recalled her pressing a lot of buttons and switches. And I still wondered why there was a hole in the ground so deep that it reached her chamber. Rotom thought it could have been a silo of some sort and I rejected the idea.

"What's the next gym going to be, Aria?" Rotom said to me as we navigated around and down the final staircase leading us to ground level. Hearthome was just a ten minute walk now and I was relieved to be back in my home country. It's sad to think of half of Sinnoh being my country of origin but it's the truth when Society Sinnoh and Galactic Sinnoh are polar opposites.

"I think the Hearthome Gym Leader is a Ghost-type user. You should have the upper hand."

"Yes, but you should know Aria, Dusknoir and I are both weak to ghost attacks, too." Rotom said looking at me a little annoyed.

"Oh. I know. But you're faster and he can take lots of hits so it works out like that right?" I said as we walked along on a trail that seemed to be winding to the right. We kept walking and the trail winded again until we were walking next to trees. Then at the clearing, we came upon a small section right before the city itself. There was a huge expanse of land between us and the city, I hadn't seen from above. I did, however see some buildings further up ahead and was excited because I heard, despite Hearthome being extremely fortified, it was a beautiful city with its trademark Amity Square. I told Rotom I would take him to the beautiful gardens of the Square and visit the Contest Hall to watch some of the greatest pokemon coordinators guide their partners to victory in a series of tasks.

After a brief moment to see the city up ahead, we continued walking. In this land there was a park to my right with no people or pokemon playing in it. Instead it seemed like nobody had played in the park for a long time. In contrast, there was a house closer to me on the right of the path. It looked very rundown and I doubted any people lived in there. It didn't matter to me and so I just kept walking.

"Aria. Something's not right here." Rotom stopped where he was floating and I turned to face him.

"What's wrong?" I said, just before I could say anything else or move I heard a huge crash. Dust flew everywhere and I couldn't see. The impact had hurled me into the grassy area of the expanse and Rotom floated after me, calling my name. I yelled after him but the loudness of the scene around us was too great for him to hear me. My ears were ringing when I stood up and the scene before me was hazy, but I could see the house that was just on my right was engulfed in flames. I was frightened by this horrific scene and saw the house had collapsed in on itself, with a faint crying when my hearing was starting to come back. Rotom found me and appeared at my side when more of the smoke cleared, and we couldn't go inside the blazing house but that didn't stop me from trying. Rotom and I cautiously approached the house and the faint crying became sudden and a little choked. I placed my hand on a piece of fallen wood and it felt warm to the touch, so I wondered what could have caused such a tremendous explosion. I pushed more of the wood around, scorching my hands a little until I could see a small body wriggling in the discarded wood.

"There's someone there!" I screamed and ran to the small child.

"Mom?" The child looked up at me and appeared crestfallen when I did not match who it thought I was. I saw that the little child was a girl and I quickly picked her up in my arms. Dashing through flames I ran out of the house and stopped in the grassy field. I told Rotom to watch the little girl when I went to go back inside for her mother. At first Rotom pulled me back but I told him lives were at stake and I ran back to the house.

A shiny piece of silvery firm metal gleamed underneath the small floorboard of the house when I walked in. I got on one knee, amid the flames and picked up the warm metal in my hands, turning it over to inspect it. The smoke was too great and I couldn't see so I was forced to run back outside and met Rotom along with the child. I tucked the piece of metal in my backpack and searched for Rotom and the girl. Then, the house behind me collapsed completely and the fires spread to the nearby grass and trees causing the fire to spread exponentially.

It was at this juncture that I could see many white trucks approaching the scene from the direction of Hearthome City. Society operatives emerged from the trucks, releasing Water pokemon that began attacking the fire, trying to suppress it. One operative saw me and Rotom and ran up to us asking what had happened. After I told him I was just passing by he grabbed my arm forcibly and pulled me in the direction of the trucks. Rotom had zapped the man's arm and I ran away from him as he called to his friends. The smoke had cleared now and before I could even reach the trees a mass of vines had strangled me and I was suppressed on the dusty grass. To avoid being attacked, Rotom quickly infiltrated my poketch and I saw his face on my wristwatch where I was held on the ground by a pokemon's vines.

"Sauuuur." I heard a Venusaur say to its trainer as the Society operative pet it on the head for restraining me. I was loaded onto a truck without any approval from me and I didn't know what happened to the little girl I rescued. I struggled in the truck when they placed handcuffs around my wrists. I was all alone in the back of one of the trucks when they started moving again.

"Let me out of here!" I screamed when I could feel movement from the truck. There was no answer and I was just lying on the metal ground of the truck, not moving and scared. It had to have been about ten minutes before the truck stopped moving and I heard the door shut behind from the front door. Two men retrieved me from their truck and dragged me inside the back of a building. The sun was beginning to set now and it was the last thing I saw before the door behind me was sealed. I kept struggling, trying to wriggle free from the grips of the men restraining me but without any success.

I was taken into a solid white room. There was only 1 desk in the entire room and two chairs. I was seated in the chair and was left alone by the two men in a windowless study room. I whimpered when I tried moving my arms and my entire body was sore from being shoved around. A pain shot up my right arm when I tried moving it and discovered it was sprained. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, a man dressed in official looking Society clothes, didn't say a word to me as he walked calmly over to his desk and began writing things down on a clipboard he carried in with him. He had carried in my backpack and just before I could say anything else he propped my bag onto his desk. He was most likely the one in charge of the place I was in, judging by the pins he wore on his jacket.

"What's your name." The man stated in a gruff, sounding voice. It startled me into silence except for his breathing and my own.

"Why am I here!" I screamed at him. I so scared I had done something wrong when in actuality a house had caught on fire and I had rescued a child inside. So why was I in here?

"What is your name." The man stated again, ignoring my question and he didn't even look up at me.

"Aria." I said looking at the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him look up at me and he blinked when I said my name, like he knew me. I, of course, had no idea who he was but I guess it's a small world.

"You are Aria?" He said looking at me. I nodded in my chair, still looking at the floor, sullenly.

"The one from Team Galactic." He said writing something on his clipboard. I was appalled when he said this and looked up.

"What? I'm not from Team Galactic!" He looked at me, almost angry that I was lying to him when it was the honest truth.

"I'm from Twinleaf Town. I was just walking by when the house caught on fire and-"

"You mean when the house exploded due to a Galactic missile?" His and my eyes were locked now. There was something going on that I wasn't aware of and this wasn't good because I'm not a terrorist.

"I was just walking by and it happened so I did what any normal person would do and went to see if anyone was in there and saved the little girl."

"What little girl?" He said, alerted now. I noticed now that he had shortly cut brown hair and wore a face with scars and some wrinkles on it. He wrote himself a note on his clipboard before putting it down and saying the word: yes.

"What do you mean 'yes' why am I still here?!" I said incredulously.

"You mean you were there to make sure the job was done, am I right Team Galactic?"

"I'm not from Team Galactic! I live in Twinleaf Town and-"

"Here's what I know, Galactic," He said shushing me into silence. I was so angry these people had restrained me and I was just doing my own business when these people came into my life.

"I was notified a week ago that Team Galactic had a spy located here in Hearthome. I began a heavy, secret assessment of the people in this city trying to smoke out the rat. Then one day later, Oreburgh City radioed me and said they intercepted a Galactic radio signal that was intended for Sunyshore. The message said they were going to shoot a missile at the spies residence in hopes that the spy wouldn't reveal any information regarding Team Galactic." He stopped talking and just stared at me. I looked at my poketch and could see the fading face of my pokemon who looked so sad staring up at me from my watch.

"What does that have to do with me?" I screamed, looking at him angrily.

"The message said the missile would be shot when the girl was nearby. That girl is you, Aria." I was nervous when he said this. Nothing was ever said to me about a missile or the house in Hearthome exploding.

"My field marshal spotted a Skarmory fleeing the scene after the bomb went off and my troops poured into the land. I personally know that Skarmory myself. It belongs to Commander Mars of Team Galactic and the transmission didn't stop there, kid. It said the girl, you, had a floating pokemon and carried a backpack. In that backpack I would find all sorts of Team Galactic equipment so let's see." The man began pouring the contents of my bag on the table and I didn't even protest because nothing in there would allude that I was ever apart of Team Galactic.

"I'm from Twinleaf Town, t-tell Barrington. He saw me at the Twinleaf Festival!" As I finished saying this my heart dropped when the man rummaged through my things and picked up a silver piece of metal. He held it up to me and I stopped before I could say anything else. Things were turning a dark terrible corner when I realized this had sealed my fate. I was Team Galactic. But I wasn't.

"So what's this? I can clearly make out the "G" that's painted onto the metal." He looked at me and laughed a little.

"Well, Aria, it's been nice meeting you, I'd tell you my name but you'd just forget it anyway, hm." He laughed to himself, fiddling around with the piece of metal.

"What do you mean I'd forget." I looked at him tensely, while he played with the metal. He stopped, then clinked onto his metal desk the small piece of Galactic metal and looked me right in the eye.

"When we decommission you, you worthless piece of shit. There's a machine in this building." He said pointing with his finger onto his desk. "And this machine is tuned to a very particular frequency of high electrical voltage. I'm gonna hook it up to your brain and zap!" He slapped the desk, startling me.

"Your brain is fried and you become a lump of pokeblock for the rest of your life." He cackled.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just shoot me?" I looked at him, cunningly.

"Shoot you." He chuckled. "What would I want with a teenage girl's corpse staining my building? I've got enough problems with fugitives running around and Team Galactic. That would cause way too many fractures in our cracked world."

"You're cracked. You won't get away with this." I stood up from the chair, my hands still restrained behind me. He laughed even harder now and told me I was in no position to bark orders at anyone. He told me General Barrington would be really upset to hear his favorite Galactic Grunt had fallen down a hill and lost all her memories.

"You can't do this. My father won't rest until you're all punished for doing this to me!" I said running up to his desk. He called in the guards who grabbed me while I was trying desperately to wriggle free. I was pulled through a hallway containing cells. In these cells I saw Galactic Operatives who were all behaving like newborn babies. I would become one of them except they would throw my body down a hill so I'd get physically injured before all my friends and family discovered poor Aria Verne fell down a hill and forgot everything. I'd be bedridden forever while these fiends who were supposed to be protecting me, rummaged through the world and I'd be dead. I would be. I'd rather be shot than cause everlasting pain to everyone around me.

The guards took me into a huge room containing nothing but a control booth and to my right was a large machine that I was hooked into. The two guards strapped me into a chair that had wires coming out of it in all directions into something I would've seen on an alien cartoon, but this was the real thing. I struggled, trying to undo the tight iron clasps that bound me to the chair and I couldn't do anything but rest here until my brain was literally fried. There was nobody who could possibly save me. Dusknoir's pokeball was still in that vile mans office in a pile of my belongings. This made me feel uneasy because it meant my pokemon would continue to suffer after I was gone. I then realized Rotom was still in my wristwatch. The two guards were positioning themselves in the control room of the machine.

"Rotom. Get out while you can. It's hopeless for me. Please. Find Dusknoir and Run. Run away." I cried. Tears streamed down my cheeks as my life was slowly about to end. My poketch began buzzing and I heard a faint "no" coming from Rotom, still inside the mechanism.

"What are you going to do?" I sniffled. Then I saw one of the Society men walk down, avoiding my tear stricken eyes and exited the room.

"Trust me." I heard a faint buzz. Then my poketch powered off. I cried a little thinking about my Dad and my friends at home who would have to care for my body once they found it. If they found it. My Dad would be heartbroken. He would quit his job to take care of me. I don't even know what we'd do. And I wouldn't even be conscious to any of this. It would be a painless oblivion to be a vegetable in the care of my friends and family and I couldn't do that to them. I couldn't be selfish and give up everything I had already accomplished.

The man from before, whose name I didn't even know, walked into the room with the accompany of the grunt from before. The grunt walked upstairs into the control booth and the man walked up to me, smiling at my teary face. I don't think I've ever hated a person as much as I hated him and then I remembered Geraldine Swan. These two people were no different in the way they generated destruction. If it wasn't on the battlefield then these destructive forces ruined the lives of the people around them. These are the villains that I was born to stop.

My poketch containing Rotom was now violently switching on and off, even sparking twice. The man's smile changed to a frown as he saw my misbehaving wristwatch. He ripped it off my arm painfully, threw it on the ground breaking it, and if that wasn't enough, stomped on it multiple times.

"They should make better technologies for you Galactic pieces of shit." He sneered, then bent closer to me and spat on my face.

"This won't matter to you, but my name is Major Daryl Atkinson. It's funny. I say my name to all the Galactic Grunts I use this zapping machine on. Don't quote me on this, but I'm not even sure the Galactics know I exist." He laughed.

"Daryl. Old name to match an old and worn out man." I said, and those were my last words, too. Atkinson looked up at the two grunts in the control booth and nodded to them without looking at me as he walked all the way to the door. He left without saying anything else as the grunts were still preparing their machine. I wasn't even told if it would be painful or not. I had expected the worst and lost my last glimmer of hope when I couldn't find or hear Rotom. I prayed that when Atkinson stepped on my poketch, Rotom had escaped and went to find Dusknoir's ball.

Maybe he could figure a way to open it and the two Ghosts could find their way back to Twinleaf Town. They would tell my Dad the truth of what happened so my Dad knew my body would be in the news. I hoped my pokemon would be okay and I hoped my Dad would be safe, too. I knew my Ghost pokemon would do everything they could to protect my father if they even made it to Twinleaf Town, a long ways from here.

I heard the faint sound of a grunt saying "ready" to his cohort and heard the clicking sound like the switch to the big red button was underneath a seal to prevent the machine from randomly going off. I wasn't prepped for anything I just heard them press buttons and the machine roared to life, buzzing and clicking and making horrifying sounds. I shook in my seat preparing for oblivion and saw the grunts who were still pressing buttons in their control deck. I shook and shook trying so hard to escape but couldn't and the machine just shook more violently with every passing second. I looked up and there were long blue wires connecting the huge power, emanating from the machine to my chair which was connected all to my brain and in a matter of seconds I would forget everything. I would forget ever going to school. I would forget my home life, my friends, my Dad, Rotom, Dusknoir. I would forget winning the first two gym badges of the Sinnoh Region on my first try and forgetting my budding friendship with Medgar, the Grass Leader. I would forget all the time I spent walking with Rotom as we talked about virtually everything. My life would be completely erased in less than ten seconds.

The machine buzzed so violently I wish I could've covered my ears because it was so loud. It winded to a high frequency buzz that was milliseconds away from taking my entire life from me and then it just shut off. The entire machine powered down and the operatives were pressing buttons, pulling levers, backup generators, emergency hatches. Anything to get the machine to power up. I was looking around everywhere trying to find the cause of the mishap and couldn't find anything that could've caused this.

One of the operatives walked down the steps from his control booth and walked up to me in the machine. Before he could touch me, the machine regained life, but didn't zap me. Instead, from one of the beacons pointed downward, a huge bolt of electricity crackled from the machine and severely electrocuted the operative. He was pushed backwards and hit the wall before collapsing on the ground and never getting up. The second grunt ran down the stairs and was shocked with a similar bolt of electricity before falling down the stairs to meet his unconscious friend.

The latches on my arms and legs clicked open and I slid my hands out and carefully maneuvered away from the machine. I walked into the center of the room, just before the control booth and looked up at the machine which was buzzing frantically. Suddenly, the machine stopped working again and my favorite Ghost pokemon emerged from its backside, huffing.

"Rotom!" I said running up to him and hugging him in my arms, weeping. I held him for a good moment until I realized more operatives would soon find us in here.

"That thing sucks up a lot of energy outta you." Rotom said referring to the oversized machine that was just about to erase my existence from this world.

Rotom and I ran out of the room without a seconds notice, running through the hallway with the vegetable Galactic operatives and were now in another hallway. I told Rotom we needed to find Dusknoir's ball in Atkinson's room. We ran so fast through the Society hallway looking for the room I was just in, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a room with the door wide open. It was the furnace room and something terrible was beckoning me into the room. I peered inside of the room with Rotom just as a Society Grunt tossed my backpack into the wild flames. I held my mouth closed with my hand and tears streamed down my face. My pokemon was thrown into that furnace. Rotom tried its best to pull me away from the room, when the central alarm went off.

The grunt inside the room began running to me and I gripped the handle of the door, sealing it shut. Rotom zapped the door and locked it from the outside so the grunt couldn't open it and was banging on the door, amid this alarm. I continued running through the Society building and was met with a Grunt and his Venusaur, who had detained me previously. It used a Vine Whip and wrapped around my arm, pulling me to him as the Grunt ran at me.

"Discharge!" I screamed and Rotom let out a powerful blue beam of electricity first at the grunt, and then down the fleshy vine zapping the Venusaur away. Then I ordered Rotom to use a Confuse Ray on the pokemon so it couldn't attack us any further and ran when I heard soldiers shuffling their boots in my direction. I picked the closest door in the four-way intersection I was in. When I saw a door I told Rotom to quickly unlock it with his Discharge. Then I closed the door and backed away from it.

I hid in this room as I heard a mass of Society officials run past us and my heart was racing like a horse at this point. I realized going through the front door was impossible and the room I was in had windows. They weren't the kind that opened so I had Rotom use another Discharge to crack open the window. I punched out the rest of the glass with my hands and crawled out of the building, sustaining only minor cuts on my body.

I looked to see where we were and learned we were somewhere in Hearthome City. It was dark now and I looked up and saw the Contest Hall. Then I looked over and saw the large Society sign on the building I was just in and people were running around.

I saw the entrance to the city, being patrolled by three Society grunts and ran. I ran after the entrance, trying to escape this town. When they were alerted of my presence, I had Rotom use an Ominous Wind to stun them momentarily while I just kept running. I heard a gunshot behind me as I turned behind a tree, then kept running until I was in the same patch of land before I was first captured. I turned around and the city behind me was in pandemonium with people screaming and I even heard pokemon moving around, roaring.

I still had Rotom's pokeball in my pocket and I took it out and ordered him inside. He protested at first but I shouted at him, ordering him inside. I wanted to protect him more than I wanted to protect myself. I gripped the ball as tightly as humanly possible and looked once more at the entrance to the city. I kept looking as I ran into the thick Hearthome Forest making sure nobody was behind me. I ran deeper into the forest when I heard several operatives running behind me, back at the large expanse of land with the charred house.

I ran for a good two minutes in this forest, until I could hear no more voice, no more pokemon and no more shuffling boots. I just stood behind a tree, raised my arms above my head and let out a wail. I reclined into my body behind this tree and cried, cried my eyes out for a good minute. I realized I was a fugitive now, that the Society would be looking for me since I had escaped my punishment. They would search every city until I was found and detained, again. I remembered what Atkinson had said about Team Galactic using my name for the missile launch and thought if it was even safe to roam back into Galactic Sinnoh.

My heartbeat increased to double its speed when I heard a bush near me shuffle. Without even looking to see if it was a pokemon or a person I ran, just sprinted forward looking behind me when I had a clear running shot through some trees. I couldn't see much because it was pitch dark, but I thought I saw somebody chasing after me. My beat quickened faster and faster as I was running. While running I checked behind again to see if the figure was still running after me, when I tripped on a loose root, banging both my knees on the ground really hard. I tried moving them but out of pain I couldn't and upon further realization, as well as my supremely fast heartbeat, that both knees were broken from impact. I crawled, desperately trying to avoid the person running after me and hid behind a tree, breathing rather vigorously. I tried suppressing my breath with my hand and the adrenaline started wearing off to which I started to feel the stinging pain in both my knees.

I didn't hear any rustling this time and sighed tremendously. I closed my eyes briefly and cried again, amid everything. Everything had spiraled out of control and my whole world was destroyed. I couldn't go anywhere now because the Society would have my face on a paper with some amount of money for my apprehension.

When I opened my eyes, I was face to face with a monster. It must have been the same person that was chasing me from before and I let out a bloodcurdling scream. I tried crawling away but the only thing I could see were the glowing eyes of the creature and the faint outline of a spoon. The spoon was raised at me and my screams softened, until I was slowly dozing off to sleep. I knew this was the end. I was being lulled to sleep by a pokemon belonging to the Society and my body would be brought back to that horrible machine. I would be zapped of my entire life and then be tossed down a hill where my body would be next found in my new vegetable form. I had failed my father in going on a pokemon adventure when I knew it was dangerous. I got myself into this mess and now I was facing the consequences for my actions. I had failed Veronica and Daniel back in Twinleaf Town. I had failed my deceased Dusknoir and Medgar. The last thing I thought about before leaving this world was that I had failed my best friend and partner for life, Rotom, before falling completely into a deep silent sleep.


	11. Chapter 11 - The Bridge

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 11: The Bridge

I was startled awake in a huge room. My heart was racing when I realized I was in the Society building. I was lying in a bed in the huge room and there were many beds surrounding mine, accept none of them were in use. I tried standing up but a searing pain shot up both my legs as my knees rejected the request to move. They were both shattered when I fell and this couldn't have been have a dream because of the fact that this paralyzing pain in my legs bound me to my bed. I looked around. It looked like any normal large stadium and I wondered where I could be. The last thing I remembered was being put to sleep by a pokemon and nothing after that.

"Hello?" I said to the room and heard my voice echo. There was no response and I couldn't see any people walking through the glass doors of the large room I was in. I didn't understand why I was here and why these beds needed to be in such a large room. With terrible pain, I reached for Rotom's pokeball to find it wasn't anywhere near me. I checked my pockets, I looked around the bed where I was but there was no pokeball in sight. All of my pokemon were taken from me and I just laid there in that bed, miserable.

I was startled again, when a dark-skinned girl entered the stadium and began walking towards me. I saw her out of the corner of my eye and saw she was around my age and wore jet black stilettos. Her light brown hair was cut short and looked like it was professionally done by a hair artist. She was beautiful to look at but I was still frightened.

"Where am I, who are you?" I tried sitting up, frightened, with pain in my legs. The girl saw that I was in pain and walked faster, and came to my side trying to comfort me.

"Wow. I can't believe I was lucky enough to find you before they did." The girl said, smiling, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. Her official looking clothes told me Society, but the way she held herself and her smile just looked so genuine. I hadn't seen a smile like that in a long time.

"Before who? And answer my questions." I said, never letting my eyes leave hers.

"Alright." She said sitting on a bed nearest mine.

"My name is Hera." The dark-skinned girl said, still smiling at me, bowing her head when she said her name. "What's yours?"

"Aria." I said looking at her cautiously. She smiled even brighter when I said my name and she stood up raising her arms.

"Well Aria, it's my pleasure to welcome you to, the Bridge." She exclaimed and I was so confused.

"I better explain." She chuckled to herself and sat back down. I was horrified.

"You see, the Bridge is an organization, like the Society and Team Galactic. But we operate on a completely different magnitude. We see through both of these factions to reveal their true ugly selves because in reality nobody in Sinnoh is safe anymore. We are born and raised in a world governed by fear and violence. The people who are supposed to be watching over us, protecting us, are the ones using us for their corrupted deeds. The Bridge was founded upon many years ago before the war started, in secrecy. It was just a small group of people in a secret society that wanted to maintain peace. It blossomed into this gigantic structure we take residence in now, after the war started. This place might look a little futuristic to you, and that's because we have a top-notch staff of technicians and material scientists backed by a huge sum of money used to support the Bridge. Currently, we are about one hundred feet below the ground where my Alakazam found you. Our cameras picked up everything from you escaping the building to you falling asleep but what I'm curious of is what happened inside of the Society Headquarters?" She said looking at me curiously.

I was in shock and started whimpering. Hera came up to me again, and tried calming me down. She asked me nicely, again to tell the story of what happened and so I did. I described in detail of everything that happened to me on my journey to her in this large stadium. I had no idea where I was or who I was talking to but I just kept on repeating the events of my life to this girl. She nodded at some of the parts and when I came to the Society part she looked more solemn and even gasped, holding her hand up to her mouth when I told her my Dusknoir was killed in a fire.

"That is unforgivable." She said shaking her head.

"I'm going to do my best to cheer you up, because I really want to be friends." She said looking at me without smiling.

"Why!" I screamed. "Why me? Where's Rotom!" I said trying to move again only to be shut down because of my injured legs. Hera talked to me more about this large place. She said it's one of the most beautiful treasures the Sinnoh Region holds like the chapel in Snowpoint City or the Sendoff Springs, both of which I had never heard of. She said the Bridge had many circular floors stacked on top of each other all with a side that faces the Gardens. These gardens, she described, where the most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed before in her life. An artificial light source replicating the energy given off by the sun was placed into the top of the entire complex and shone down into the gardens way down below, acting like an artificial sun to all the pokemon who inhabited them. Hera said I would get to see these gardens for myself once my legs healed.

"Oh, and your Rotom was also healed in our medical lab, then released into the Gardens, I see your pokemon from the windows just floating by itself. I think it misses you, Aria." She said standing up from the bed. She pulled out a pokeball of her own from her pocket and released a puffy, pink Blissey.

"My Blissey will treat your wounds for the next few days, accelerating the recovery phase. You should be on crutches by the end of the day." She smiled and left the room. When she left, the Blissey turned to me and jumped with excitement. I would spend the next two days with this Blissey. These days were filled with unfathomable torture. I was stuck watching the Blissey play around by itself and it played with me for the entirety of the two days. The Blissey taught me a game where we slap each others hands, clap, then clap with just our left hands, then our right hands, lefts, rights, the backs of our hands and then clapped together again. I didn't know the name of this game but the Blissey insisted on playing it to pass the time.

On the first day I attempted to get up once and couldn't. The Blissey, although angry at first, retrieved some medicine and the pain subsided but I wasn't allowed to walk. When the artificial sunlight peeking from the stadium window began diminishing, the Blissey ordered me to bed. I really needed to use the restroom and the Blissey sighed, but allowed me to lean on her body as I limped to the bathroom all the way across the stadium. It was so painful and sitting on that toilet was the best thing I've felt in a long time it seemed. The Blissey pounded on my stall door and after I had finished, the Blissey opened the stall door and I fell onto her back as she was facing the sink right in front of us. I tried stepping down as she carried by whole body but it was too painful. We slowly walked to that bed in about five minutes of waddling. When the Blissey arrived at the bed I calmly got back, a little upset that I would be bedridden again, but quickly fell asleep after the Blissey collapsed from exhaustion.

That night I dreamed about what would've happened if instead of Hera finding me, the Society had found me and I would be taken back to that wretched building where my brain would be totally fried. I shook in the middle of the night, from nightmares and the Blissey was startled awake, then hobbled over to me and fed me some sort of sweet I had never tasted before in my life. I thought about that sweet the entire night and it was as though the Blissey's candy was mind-altering, causing my dreams to be filled with marshmallows and gumdrops. I haven't had a sound dream like this in a long time, but it reminded me of home too much. Before another thought could enter my head I was sound asleep.

That next morning, I felt rejuvenated. I wasn't cured completely, but after the Blissey gave me more medicine she left to fetch me a cup of water. I waited for around twenty minutes while the Blissey navigated through the Bridge and I just laid there on that warm bed and thought about the Gardens, Hera was talking about. I wanted to see them for myself or perhaps walk through them with Rotom. I think I deserved a vacation.

When the Blissey came back, she had worn around her shoulder, a small bag and carried two crutches in her stubby little hands. As she approached the bed I was in, she dumped the crutches on the floor and sat down on the ground. She procured a water bottle and handed it to me, huffing. I watched her huff as I raised the bottle to my lips, but instead beckoned it to her. Hera's Blissey was elated and took the bottle from me. She poured a little bit of water into her mouth and then returned the bottle to me. I drank the entire thing in less than five seconds. I knew it meant I would have to use the bathroom again and I really wanted those crutches.

My knees were aching after three straight clapping games with the Blissey and I wanted to walk around a little. The Blissey hesitated at first, but hopped off the bed and retrieved the fallen crutches, handing them to me. In the ninth grade I broke my foot after we won our regional game. It was exciting but painful and these crutches brought back memories from that wondrous time. The Blissey helped me from the bed as I looked from the ground to my knees. Before we could even get to the ground, I saw Hera walk into the stadium. She smiled when our eyes met and I returned a quick half smile and looked at the teasing ground again. The Blissey helped me sit back onto the bed as Hera and I talked.

"Have you been taking your medicine like Blissey instructed you to, Aria?" She retook the same seat she sat in yesterday. Today Hera wore her hair in the same neat, professional way she wore it yesterday and she wore a black skirt topped by a gray sweater and it revealed her pearl white undershirt. She wore a different, but still black pair of stilettos and I didn't understand this because I always thought of girls who wore those kinds of shoes, to be promiscuous and unintelligent. Hera didn't strike me as neither.

"Yeah. I feel a little better." I told her, and this time looking up at her smiling face. She always smiled at me yet we both knew nothing about the other individual.

"That's nice to know because the medicine I put you on, when taken in the right way provides extremely fast regeneration of torn and damaged tissue. You should be able to crawl without any pain right about." She paused. "Now." She chuckled and I emitted a soft laugh, too. This girl seemed like the perfect friend but I didn't really trust anybody right now.

"When will I be able to leave this place." I said looking at her seriously. She returned a frightened look and almost shattered into pieces at the thought of me leaving.

"Oh. I'm not sure that's a wise idea." She looked at me with utmost sincerity, but I had a journey to get on with. Then a sledgehammer figuratively hit me on the head. My father was in danger. I had to leave now.

"You don't understand I need to leave right now. My Dad is in danger." I said fussing around in the bed trying to get up but the Blissey held me down and calmed me with her dagger-like eyes. Tears were brought to my eyes and Hera ordered Blissey to let me go. I just laid in that bed crying, while that girl and her pokemon watched me.

"I. I am really sorry to hear about that. I kind of assumed... but we will make arrangements to bring your father here. He can stay in the protection of the Bridge for as long as he desires. You, too." She stood up.

"Assumed what?"

"I thought you were an orphan."

"What." I whispered to myself. I looked up as the girl began departing the large room. On the bed, she left a book that I saw titled as _The Houses of the Bridge. _I never read the book but I did get some sleep. This time my day nap was comprised of nightmare after nightmare as I dreamed my Dad or my friends would get taken by the Society or worse. I needed to get out of this place and find my Dad. I haven't talked to him in a long time and what a surprise it would be coming home from a pokemon journey and saying "hey Dad were moving to the Bridge let's go." The Blissey tried feeding me another sweet pink treat but it didn't make the pain go away this time.

My nap turned into a full on deep sleep and I awoke when everything was pitch black, desperately needing to use the bathroom. I got up from the bed and walked over to the bathroom I had made acquaintance with before. After washing my hands and looking at my dirtied face in the mirror I realized, and screamed with elation over the fact that my legs were fixed. It mystified me that some medicine could cure both my broken knees in only two days. I washed off the grime between my fingernails and washed my hair a little, too. Tomorrow I would take a shower for sure.

Two things kept me from sleeping that night. The first was my day napping turning me nocturnal. I also felt a touch of animosity for being held in this large stadium for two days without seeing Rotom so I quietly crept past the sleeping Blissey, who was around fifteen feet from where I was due to the hugeness of this room. I still wondered why they put beds in a stadium made for sports but this place was beyond me. The door to the stadium automatically opened when I approached it and it was pitch dark except for lights strung up on the tops of the hallway I was in. The hallway was narrow and after exploring my area a little, I came across an adjacent hallway. There were no doors on the sides of this hallway and I came closer to the center of the Bridge. I was met with a large window that revealed the dark gardens Hera was talking about.

I couldn't see anything except the faint reflection of a river down below and there were no definite edges or corners I could see. I tried to find a faint glow in the bottom, hoping it would be Rotom but maybe we were just so high up that I couldn't see the glow or anything. Instead I just carefully remembered how to get back to that stadium. After walking through the automatic doors, I crept back into bed, jittery from being able to walk again, but couldn't sleep no matter how many times I tried shutting my eyes.

Laying in that bed wasn't too bad. The Bridge people had definitely picked out the most comfortable ones and I was thankful for that. But I was more thankful for these people taking me in, it's just I didn't feel a hundred percent safe being in this place.

The artificial sunlight began peeking around the hallway I had walked through last night and slowly illuminated the stadium. The lights flickered on automatically when the sunlight began and the Blissey soon shook awake, yawning a bit, then offered me more medicine and water. I shook my head and stood up, but the Blissey persisted. I ended up taking the last capsule of medicine and drank more water left for me by Hera. In the morning, the Blissey pointed to the door and then held its hand out to me. I knew what it had offered me and I was obliged to take that pokemon's stubby little hand.

I kept to myself as we walked down the same hallway I had walked through before. Blissey turned the same corner as I had the previous night and we approached the same window only this time my mouth had dropped open. Several hundred feet below us in an enclosed area, was a colossal expanse of land. There was a forest region, a small mountain nearby and even a large lake where I saw a Wailord gliding near the surface. Several bird pokemon flew in the sky and I could even make out the definite shapes of the Staravia and Fearow as they flew in the air.

Searching for Rotom was impossible from this high altitude so I asked if we could go down there and the Blissey shook her head. Instead, she led me all the way down the floor until I saw doors and even heard other people in them. The Blissey walked up to a large door and the room that was behind it jutted into the huge room enclosing the Gardens. I saw a window once we entered the room, where lots of big bird pokemon were flying in high altitudes. Inside the room looked like the inside of a spaceship with people working on computers. On the second floor of this room I saw Hera working on a laptop in front of her and sitting across from her was a man. She noticed us walk in and ran down the steps to hug me.

"I knew the medicine would work!" She exclaimed still hugging me. She wasn't wearing her stilettos today and just wore dark work shoes that clicked when she walked. The chair that was in front of hers was occupied by an aesthetically pleasing looking guy that walked down and put his arm around Hera's shoulder.

"Aria. This is one of the leaders of the Bridge, and my boyfriend, Alexander." Alex saluted me with two fingers and smiled a little when he saw me.

"Welcome." He said, walking up to me and shaking my hand. "Yes, my name is Alex and you are standing in my office. Have you had a chance to see the view." He pointed to the circular window above the stairs on the top part of the room. I nodded and he returned my nod with his own nod, then went and stood beside Hera.

"Aria, right now you are on the Psychic floor of the Bridge. There are many floors that make up this circular building, one for each type of pokemon. The Psychic type manage the topmost floor. Our pokemon our adept at sensing disturbances and we are responsible for making sure no intruders get into the Bridge." She said, smile and all.

"I have too many questions." I said looking at the couple. Hera nodded and led me up the stairs to a table in the place she was working at, and she retook her seat where a laptop was. Alex sat directly across from her. I sat next to Hera in the table and Hera's Blissey took the seat across from me and next to Alex.

"First of all. Thank you all so much for taking me in." I turned to Hera. "I would be dead without all that you've done for me and your Blissey has been a big help too." The Blissey bounced in her seat, excitedly. Alex smiled and sat back in his chair observing the way I talked like he was testing me. Hera just smiled and looked at me, reminding me of the warm personality of my father, which made me feel uneasy.

"It was our pleasure. We take in anyone who doesn't have a home in either the Society or Galactic part of the Sinnoh Region. Our little headquarters underneath the Hearthome Forest is large, but it's all we have. We don't own a half of this region but we work with what we have." Alex said, never taking his eyes off me.

"Why is this place called the Bridge?" I asked looking at him. Hera looked at her boyfriend then looked out the window to look at some of the flying pokemon. Alex went into detail explaining the origins of the Bridge telling me that it was centered around those who didn't agree with the platforms of the Society and Team Galactic. It evolved into the Bridge when people began to realize that neither side provided protection to its citizens.

"Some people ended up fleeing from the Sinnoh Region altogether to avoid the war. More left when the war had started. This place became known as the Bridge because it's meant as a last resort for people like you, Aria. People that don't belong in either of the two sections of Sinnoh usually find a home in here because we are our own region, the third region of Sinnoh. It's a Bridge so that people may cross from the darkness and into the truth."

"So you guys are like another faction." I said looking from Alex to Hera.

"We don't like to think of ourselves as a faction. We believe every single person living in the Bridge has a voice, and there are seventeen leaders, one for each type of pokemon. Those leaders guide their followers in training against the two factions as well as the ins and outs to the Bridge so that they may protect it." Alex said looking from the window to me. I nodded my head at all this information and had never heard of this place in the news.

"But how come I've never heard of you guys before? When I was still in school I kept up with all the news regarding the war and I never recalled hearing about the Bridge." I said, my voice guiding into Alex's ears. He registered the information and I could see he almost laughed at my ignorance.

Hera picked up on this and took over the speaking. She kicked Alex from underneath the table with her shoes and he recoiled into himself. Hera looked to me and smiled again. "You see, Aria. The Bridge maintains a critical level of secrecy. We don't let anyone talk about the Bridge but that doesn't mean Team Galactic and the Society don't know about us."

"Oh they know about us." Alex interrupted, looking up at me. One look from Hera and he was silenced, returning to his daydreams to the window with the flying pokemon.

"The leaders of the two factions do know of us, and they think of us like another enemy. They believe we are aiding the other side, but after months of unsuccessful meetings and negotiations between the three of us, we decided it was best to keep our location a secret. That hasn't stopped both sides from searching all around Sinnoh for us, secretly. We once had a crisis where three Galactic Grunts found this place. We had to deal with them but Alex would never tell me happened to them." She looked at him sarcastically. He didn't budge from his position so she kicked him again and he flinched, looked at Hera who eyed him coldly and he turned to me.

"So Aria. Since you will be staying at the Bridge have you been introduced to the House system we practice here?"

"Yes she has. I gave her the book on all the houses we have to provide. You did read it didn't you Aria?" Hera looked at me and I nodded while maintaining a fake smile that fooled the two of them.

"Alright then, have you decided on a House?" Alex focused his attention on a woman who entered the room. I looked down at the woman who was busily pressing buttons on a clipboard and I further realized the board she was holding was a portable computer. This place had virtually everything I had dreamed of for the future. Alex stood up from his chair as Hera watched him descend the stairs and walked up to the woman. After Alex became hidden by the stairs, Hera leaned in and whispered into my ear.  
"That's the Dragon leader, Margaret. She's supposed to be wicked on the battlefield but her role is to process all the information gathered on the two factions. You don't want to get on her bad side."

"So are you like the Psychic leader?" I asked her, while the Blissey looked down at the people talking below.

"Alex is the leader of the Psychic trainers. I'm his girlfriend so people just group us together. I'm unofficially a co-leader of the Psychic floor. But I'm more interested in which house you want to choose. Have you picked one yet." She held her bottom lip with her teeth like an excited child.

"I think I'm going with the Ghost House." I said unsure of myself. I didn't know a thing about any of the houses and it probably would've been better to align myself with these people but I've always felt closer to Ghost pokemon.

"You know you don't have to pick a House just because Rotom is a Ghost pokemon, right?" She looked at me uneasily. I couldn't tell if she wanted me to join the Psychic House but I felt sure of joining the Ghost trainers. A feeling of deep grief resurfaced in my chest as I remembered the moment I found out Dusknoir had passed. It brought my face down to a pale color and Hera looked at me funny.

"Aria you look like you're about to cry. What happened?" She said hugging me as I began sobbing. Alex and Margaret were still chatting down below and the other people working in the room were busy tending to their work. Blissey noticed I was crying and came up to the two of us and joined in on the hugging.

"Dusknoir was my friend. And they took him from me." I said as we hugged. When we broke, Hear wiped a tear from my face and said everything would be okay. She told me she would take me to the basement where the Chateau of Umbra could be found. This castle in the lowest floor of the Bridge, housed the Ghost pokemon and just a floor above, was the Dark floor. The Dark and Ghost leaders both lived in the Chateau and Hera told me to be careful around them.

"It's not that they're dangerous, they're just hard to please. The Ghost and Dark Houses both have the lowest and second to lowest population of the entire Bridge, respectively, you see." Hera then proceeded to tell me about the wonderful people I was bound to meet down in the shadowy abyss.

"Is my choice set in stone now, or?" I looked at her.

"Not exactly set in stone, it's just who you live with. You're more than welcome to come up here and hangout with me, but your family is with the House you decide on." I heard the automatic door close, and momentarily, Alex began ascending the stairs until he was met back with us. He didn't notice that I was crying and Hera's Blissey returned to her seat as Alex retook his.

"Aria wants to join with the Chateau of Umbra." Hera told him, ignoring that Alex had left their conversation and rejoined it abruptly. He nodded his head and looked at me like he worried for me.

"Are you sure she'll be able to handle it? We get the most rejections out of the Ghost and Dark Houses, Hera are you sure-" Alex stopped talking when the daggers emanating from Hera's eyes pierced his soul and he remained silent for the rest of the time I was there. I looked uneasily at Hera who tried to use her smile to settle me down.

"They can reject me?" I looked at the table and thought about where I could possibly go if I couldn't stay at the Bridge.

"Aria, I would standby you all the way, but if they did reject you, you would just have to join the Normal House and join the Bridge's personal army. This is all your option. We aren't keeping you here against your will. But everyone who stays in the safety of the Bridge has tasks they need to follow on. If you joined with the Chateau you would be trained in special operations missions." Hera said and overloaded my brain with all this information.

"Yeah, they don't mess around down there. If they don't think you're viable to them, they'll reject your request to stay in the Chateau. We don't really allow second picks unless its the army so I hope you do your best, sport." Alex said smiling at me and then looked at the window all while Hera rolled her eyes.

"Let's go Aria." Hera said rising from her chair. She told her Blissey to stay here and slap Alex for her while she took my hand, led us both down the stairs and out the automatic door. We walked together through the hallways and everything was so clean about the hallways, I appreciated that the people here maintained proper cleanliness.

"I believe that you'll get into the Chateau, I'll be supporting you all the way." She said, guiding me around sharp corners and through many hallways. If I was to live here it would take me forever to memorize the twists and turns of this floor. And there were seventeen floors... I just hoped I would make it into that Chateau. I would give anything to rip apart the Society for what they've done to me and avenge Dusknoir.

"Why are you so nice to me, Hera." I looked at her when she beckoned me into a lift. We stood together in the lift and she pressed the lowest button leading to the basement of the Bridge.

"Because you remind of myself when I first came to the Bridge." I looked at her in awe. "In fact, I came in pretty much the same way you did. I was born and raised in Snowpoint City. Living under Team Galactic wasn't easy when they demanded our devotion every single day. My parents couldn't stand the oppression of Team Galactic and the way they treated people who had opposing viewpoints. They started a committee to interpret the acts of Team Galactic. When it became very prominent, Team Galactic murdered my parents right as I walked through the door on my way home from school." I looked at her with my mouth dropped, not blinking.

"I'm so sorry, I feel terrible for-" I began but Hera raised her hand to stop me.

She began smiling again. "Don't worry about it. I'm mostly over it, but the pain never seems to go away no matter how many times I smile." She said pausing. Neither of us said a word for a few floors but I saw we were almost there, to the bottom of the Bridge.

"Anyway, your story touched me and when I found you it made the pain in my heart leave for a little when I knew there were other people in this world like me, who knew the truth." She explained, looking at me. "It takes a lot of pain to know the truth, but you can't live in this world unless you know pain like we do. Or you live blindly while terrible things are happening right under your nose." The door opened and we were enveloped in darkness. Lanterns lit with fire welcomed us when we stepped into the dimly lit floor.

"This is where you will find the Chateau of Umbra. Just keep walking down and you'll find the castle. Oh and you might want this." She said handing me a pokeball. I gripped it in my hands, as a smile emerged on my face.

"Is this?"

"It is." She smiled her warm, genuine smile. "Now go join them, for you, for me, for Rotom and for everyone you love. I believe in you Aria, you can do it!" She said as the elevator door closed. And it was just me, standing in the darkness with Rotom's pokeball in my hands. I heard the lift behind me ascend as I became a wanderer in the abyss of the Bridge.


	12. Chapter 12 - Dark Corners

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 12: Dark Corners

As soon as I couldn't hear the lift anymore, I stood with my back against a wall and sighed heavily. I ejected Rotom from my pokeball and once his eyesight adjusted to the darkness, he rammed my face, in his way of hugging me.

"Oh my god I thought I'd lost you forever!" Rotom yelled in the darkness. I tried seeing further inside, but not even the lanterns could help me see. They ended a ways down and after that was total darkness.

"Do you know where we are." I asked him.

"You mean this tunnel?" He looked at me with a dash of concern on his face.

"No. We're underneath the Hearthome Forest." He blinked when I said this to him. The both us just talked in this hallway for a long time, exchanging information. I told him exactly what had happened to me after I put him back in his ball to where we are now. He wowed many times and shook his head with anger when I retold how Hera had felt sympathy for Dusknoir.

"If I see that man again. I will kill him. What he did is unforgivable." Rotom roared, floating furiously.

"I want revenge, too but how can we do that when they won't let us leave?"

"Oh my god what about your father." Rotom realized.

"I already tried asking but they wouldn't let me leave. They said I had to go down here and join this House. We're supposed to going to the Chateau of Umbra I think it was called." Rotom looked confused, as though he had never heard of this place. I personally didn't know what the word umbra meant.

"I know umbra is a complete shadow, that's really it." Rotom buzzed. I was so happy to hear his voice and to be around him. I walked up to him and grabbed hold of his electric body. He nestled in my arms as we embraced. It could have been better had we not been cloaked in darkness. I told him there wasn't anything for us to do except go further into this tunnel and maybe join with their ranks. I wondered what kind of people I would meet down here who spent all their time covered in darkness.

The lanterns began appearing less and less until we were completely covered in the murky blackness. I was using Rotom as my light source because I no longer had a flashlight or a backpack for that matter. My poketch was gone too. The only thing I had left was Rotom. And as much as I could be satisfied with just that, I wasn't. I wished and wished that Dusknoir could have been saved, and it was eating me alive that the pokemon I had just rescued was killed in that fire.

"I'm so angry, Rotom." I whimpered as we were walking. Rotom sensed my animosity and I couldn't tell, but he was very tense, floating in the dark. We walked aimlessly through this hallway until Rotom turned a corner and I almost ran into the wall directly in front us. I held my hands out touching the side wall to maintain some balance and used Rotom to guide myself through the rest of the nothingness. Rotom stopped abruptly and I could see the fiery outlines of candles around the outside of a huge castle. We were several hundred feet underground and I was questioned why castles could be built all the way down here.

Rotom and I approached the castle, whose dimly lit candles served as my only light source inside. There was a murky moat underneath where we were standing and I only noticed when Rotom floated over the moat and I almost plunged in after him. Rotom quickly floated back to me and we pondered how we would ever cross to the castle. Was this part of my test? Before I could answer that in my head, a drawbridge was released and as it creaked down to us, several Zubat and Golbat flew out of the castle in massive throngs. If my heart wasn't racing from the nightmarish darkness we had just come into, it was because of these pokemon flying past me with large wings and sharp fangs.

Even so, Rotom and I wandered across the creaking drawbridge, and entered the castle, that was still underground. This place didn't really make any sense to me but I figured doing what these people say might get me closer to my father.

Inside of the castle was terrifying. It was pitch black and if I didn't know any better, the hanging knights on the walls adjacent from us, would grab at us and take us to a dungeon if we tread too close. Candles only lit up individual rooms of the castle, which I saw through an opened door. I couldn't tell if there was anybody in there, but I was sure I wasn't the one to find out.

"Where are we, Aria." Rotom said as I was following him through the endless main hallway. We went up some stairs but then the hall continued and it felt like we were back in the Bridge, navigating through seemingly infinite twists and turns.

"Chateau of Umbra." I whispered, following his trail cautiously. We passed by several large pillars inside the castle, leading to somewhere deeper inside. I was surprised this castle could be built so high up when there had to be floors for other pokemon types. Hera did say the Dark chamber was up above so maybe they were somehow connected? I'm not exactly sure where we are. It felt like we walked in this castle for another five minutes before coming to a semi-large room where the hall ended. Inside of the room there were couches and chairs lined perfectly to face the center which held a fireplace, whose blazing flames welcomed me with a few snaps until I saw two people standing in the room near the fire. Their faces were obscured by the darkness and I could only see the color of their clothes.

The woman wore a dark dress with red accents lining down the side. Her heels looked really shiny in the darkness but her face told otherwise. She held her hair in a bun on the top of head but still her hair was long and drooped down. The man wore black clothes, surprise, and I could see his hair was grown out a little longer but it was still kept nice. These two people watched me and Rotom as we entered but didn't say anything until I asked if I was intruding.

"No-o, course not! Take a seat." I followed the woman's arm, beckoning to a chair and sat in it while Rotom floated nearby and I could tell he was very tense.

"Now aren't you just a beautiful Ghost? You can relax we aren't enemies. Yet." She said chuckling to herself and I knew I was in the wrong place.

"How may we be of service to you...um?" The man started talking up a conversation with me.

"My name's Aria. And this is Rotom." I responded into their blank faces. The man came up to me and knelt on one knee, he took my hand and laid a dry kiss on the back of it. He rose up and joined the woman at her side. All I cared about was seeing the man's face and he did look very handsome in that suit.

"Well, Aria, we would like to welcome you to our castle. This is the sanctuary for Dark and Ghost pokemon." The man began. I looked to the fire momentarily and saw its colors and shapes. It was haunting and I couldn't look at for too long without the pain coming to me. That pain would haunt me for the rest my life. It was unfortunate that I discovered the truth through all this pain. The woman noticed I looked very solemn and placed her hand on the man's hip. He stopped talking about whatever he was talking about and the woman resumed.

"Talia is my name. And he is called Crow." Talia's hand pointed up at her associate when she stated his name.

"Yes, that would be me." Crow began. "You won't be seeing me that much in your training but I'm still important enough to know. I govern the Dark trainers in the Bridge. And Talia here leads the Ghost trainers." Crow said looking at me. I could see the curves and features of his face every so often when the fires wiggled closer into our direction. I even saw Talia's face which looked beautiful when it was masked by darkness.

"Aria, have you been acquainted with the whole House system?" Talia said looking at me with her hawk-like eyes in the dark.

"Yea, I'm here aren't I?" They both began chuckling when I said this.

"Clever and funny." Crow stated. "We could use more of those around here."

"Anyway." Talia started up again. "You do know that you must go through a test to see if this castle is the right place for you?" She held her hands together in front of her when she said this, and it gave off the impression that I was about to jump up from my seat and run out of this castle screaming. I just sat in that chair, next to Rotom and looked up at the strange people before me.

"I know and I'll accept your test."

"Good of you to say that. A lot of the other Houses of the Bridge don't require an entrance examination of their followers. We are very different from those fools in the Normal Army. They are trained to fight against the Society and Team Galactic when in reality our trainers could mop the floor with that army and the other factions." Talia sneered.

"Yes. You picked us and now it's our turn to select you." Crow said to me. "You will take this test and if you pass, alive, you will be welcomed by all of the Ghost and Dark trainers." I was surprised and scared when he said that last sentence. What kind of test were these people going to have me undergo? I saw the man crack a dark smile as he began talking again. He noticed my uneasiness amid my very solemn face.

Talia took the floor again, and with her right arm she pointed to an open room.

"Take that hallway until you reach a fork and make sure you go left. Then keep walking until you find the dome. Your test will be inside of this dome." She looked at Crow and they both exchanged a smile.

I got up from the chair and Rotom followed me and as I walked in the pitch black I could feel their eyes watching me from behind. Rotom floated in front of me and I used his light to guide myself through this room. In the room, it almost looked like a kitchen because I saw three refrigerators and cabinets lining the sides of the hall. It smelled like dry loaves of bread in here.

We came to the fork like Talia had described, Rotom chose the left part, and we entered it as I took one final look back at the fireplace room but no longer where the eyes watching me. They had departed, leaving me in the darkness alone. Rotom floated carefully and slowly, making sure I was following him close by. He stopped and looked at me in the dark when I had looked back and he buzzed to get my attention.

"Sorry. This place just creeps me out." I said looking into his eyes. He nodded at me and turned around to float further into the fork we had just ventured into.

"We're looking for a dome right?" Rotom said to me and I told him yes as I tried looking around the room but Rotom's light wasn't enough to allow me a high resolution visual of the place. There could be bones hanging above my face and I would never know. We continued walking in the dark corners of this castle until we couldn't walk any further. We had come into a room that was illuminated by a single large hemisphere in the center. We were in the dome, which might be the only illuminated room in the entire castle. I shuddered when I thought I heard a whisper and turned around to see nothing there and it scared me, because we were now sealed inside of the dome which was whispering and there was no way out.

"We're stuck in here, Rotom." I said, my voice trembling. "Do you think they're imprisoning us in here?"

"This is our test, isn't it?" Rotom said, ignoring my earlier question. We walked closer to the hemisphere, bulging out of the ground which was the only thing inside of this large dome, other than us. I looked up and we were completely encased by this dome with the bright hemisphere.

"Who are you."

"Did you say something, Rotom?" I turned to him.

"No, did you just ask me 'who are you'?" Rotom replied and my heart almost dropped. I turned around to look around the dome but there was nothing there. Rotom looked around too, but wasn't able to find anything. The dimly lit dome became more menacing when more whispers became apparent to the both of us.

"Prepare thyself." The whispers said. I was turning around in the chamber, trying to make sense of what was going on but nothing made sense. We were alone in this dome, but something was in here with us. It was invisible and I thought there was an actual Ghost in the dome until my eyes came to the specter floating the air. It wasn't Rotom because Rotom was also looking at the murky poltergeist floating before us. It was hard to make out the shapes, but I could see the jagged edges of the Haunter that floated right above us now.

"You are my test?" I asked the floating shadow.

"Yes." It responded back, startling me. I had never encountered another pokemon that could talk, other than Rotom, and this Haunter was beginning to creep me out. I didn't know what the test was and why we had to be shut in this dome.

"My name is Jasper." The Haunter whispered to me as it floated above us in the enclosed dome.

"I'm guessing we have to defeat it in battle." Rotom said, never taking eyes off Jasper. The battle started abruptly when Jasper lunged at us and arched to the other side. I had Rotom use an Ominous Wind to rattle Jasper around, but the pokemon seemed to dodge the attack. Jasper released a mighty Shadow Ball, which was hurled at Rotom, and missed by an inch. For a counterattack, Rotom fired off another Ominous Wind which seemed to hit Jasper, but he emerged from the murky attack unscathed. It seemed as though the attack had gone completely through him.

This time, Jasper lunged at us again, and scratch Rotom with his ghostly hands, Rotom flew backwards and struck the wall of the dome pretty hard.

"Rotom!" I screamed running to him, but before I could get to him, Jasper turned his attacks to me. He fired a Shadow Ball at me and I fell onto the ground to avoid it. Jasper flew at me and before he could inflict another attack, a bold of electricity struck him coming from Rotom. The Discharge attack went through Jasper and didn't affect him at all. He used a Shadow Claw on my leg and tore into my flesh. I screamed in pain and Rotom flew over, to protect me.

"Are you okay?" Rotom said, not looking at me, but at the specter that floated near us.

"I'm okay, but that really hurt." I said sitting up from where I laid. I looked at my thigh which had some red stains where my shorts ripped. I tried standing up and realized Jasper hadn't seeped his claws deep enough to do real damage. He just scratched the surface, injuring me. I looked at him, angrily and he returned a dark smile.

"This is a test for you and your pokemon. I am going to attack you both. And you fools can't touch me. Haven't you noticed?" Jasper cackled. But he was right. None of the attacks Rotom had been using were touching Jasper at all, not even the Ghost attacks that are supposed to be super effective against Ghost pokemon. This seemed like an impossible test and I didn't know what to do. I was trapped in this dome as this indestructible Haunter tormented us.

"Do you give up yet so I can eat your souls?" Jasper cackled louder, stunning me. I looked around the room for something to help us with but the only thing in the room other than us was the glowing hemisphere in the center of the room.

"Rotom." I said, beckoning to the center of the room, avoiding the gaze of Jasper. Rotom nodded at me and floated at Jasper, but before they were about to collide he just flew past the menacing specter and Jasper became enraged. He started yelling taunting things at Rotom and chased him around the dome firing Shadow Balls. Rotom turned around in their chase every so often to fire back a Discharge. Each time, however, the attack just passed through Jasper's intangible body. It confused me how he was able to touch me, but not be touched and I realized what Rotom had told me long ago. His words echoed in my head: _Ghost pokemon are intangible, yes, but some of us are able to control when we are and aren't tangible and usually our partners are allowed to touch us. If someone like your friends wanted to pet me I'd change my composition to be intangible again._ So Jasper must be using his ghostly ability to shift between being tangible and intangible. But this was different. Ghost pokemon can only do that with physical interactions. Jasper could change his tangibility with non-physical attacks like the Discharge and Ominous Wind.

I quickly ran over to the hemisphere in the center of the room, releasing a dim light, which was released into the whole dome. I touched it with my hand and saw Jasper starting to charge at me. Before he could use another attack on me I shifted to my left, rapidly and managed to avoid his attack as he arched upward and faced me. I ran over to Rotom who was close to the wall of the dome and Jasper just stared at us.

"I figured something out." I said to Rotom who broke focus from Jasper and turned to me.

"What is it? How do we beat him. Because nothing I'm doing is working." Rotom looked at me nervously. Jasper, on the other hand, looked at us weirdly and fired off another series of Shadow Balls. Rotom and I became split apart so I had to speak louder so as to reach him. He tried floating to me, but was struck by a Shadow Ball and collided with the wall, then oozed down to the ground.

"Rotom!" I yelled, and ran to him. I picked him up, and he flew out of my arms, ready to fight again. Jasper looked at us, disgustingly as though I did something wrong. I approached during the battle and hugged him in my arms tightly with my back facing to Jasper.

"Ow. He hit me good again. I don't think I can take many more hits like that Aria. So what's your plan." Rotom said looking at me, damaged and a little fatigued from fighting this impossible opponent. I pointed with my chin to the center, and noticed Jasper was floating protectively, over the hemisphere now.

"He only attacks me when I'm near that glowing bulb. And you when I'm not. He's protecting it and I think it's the answer we're looking for." I said to Rotom. Jasper just looked at us unable to make sense of our plan. He flew closer to us, cautiously and lowered himself so that he was directly in our view. Rotom became alert that Jasper was advancing on us, floated out of my grasp. Then he fired another Shadow Ball and Rotom used a Discharge. We both jumped in opposite directions when the Shadow Ball was absorbed by the dome wall. The Discharge went straight through Jasper and partially hit the hemisphere. Jasper yelped in pain and temporarily shifted on and off, like he was a projection.

"Are you even real?" I yelled to the pokemon.

"You won't be alive to find out." The ghost pokemon retorted, then lunged at Rotom. Rotom attempted to use another Discharge but missed the hemisphere.

"We need to get closer!" I yelled to him, while I started running at the hemisphere. Jasper saw me running to the center of the dome and changed his barrage of attacks from Rotom to me. I looked over at Rotom and heard him faintly say that I was boneheaded and reckless. Then I saw him dash in the air towards the center, while avoiding Jasper at all costs. I was almost as fast as he was while running, but when I turned around Jasper was right directly above me and used a Shadow Ball. I felt the ghostly energy when it almost struck me and dived to the ground. It hurt a little when I fell, but I was right next to the hemisphere. Jasper flew at me and just before he could use a Shadow Claw, he was stunned in the air when Rotom used an Ominous Wind on the center of the dome.

"Rotom use Discharge on that hemisphere!" I called to him. He released a violent burst of blue energy that struck the hemisphere and it flickered. Jasper grimaced when the electric attack struck the hemisphere and his body was sucked into the glowing bulb. Then the door opened where we first entered, and I knew the test was over. Rotom floated in the air and I was just laying on the ground near the hemisphere breathing coarsely. I was tired from the encounter and it hurt a little on my bad thigh as I was sitting on it awkwardly. I saw Rotom was looking faint and so began to rise up off the dusty ground.

"We did it." I stood up, huffing. Rotom floated weakly over to me and we both traveled to the door, I was limping and he floated so weakly that I grabbed him and carried him the rest of the way.  
"Thanks." He said when he got comfortable in my arms.

"Don't get too comfortable." I said, walking through the door back into the hallway where the fork was. The door to the dome slid back down and I was glad to be rid of Jasper and his maliciousness. I held my thigh while holding Rotom with one hand and felt the wound. It hurt when I accidentally touched the cut flesh but I concluded it was only a flesh wound and would heal without too much worry. But wow it was painful.

I walked, holding Rotom in my hands, as I navigated through what I described as the kitchen of the castle and approached the same place I had previously been to, with the fireplace. I remained standing straight in the room along with Rotom, as I waited for someone to appear and congratulate me. Instead, I saw a figure walking down the hallway and felt a touch of fear. The figure turned into a room, and came out holding something. When the person walked into the room I was so surprised to see who the familiar face was.

"What are you doing here." I said to the girl. The girl looked at me with no emotion in her face. I could see the same purple highlights in her long, dark hair as she chose the closest seat nearest the fire and began reading a book.

"I live here." She said looking at Rotom before becoming immersed in her story.

"Where's your Gengar." I asked her, while she was reading. She looked up to the fire, then at her book. Then she looked at me with an annoyed look on her face.

"Why are you even here." She looked at me, closing her book without us losing eye contact. She stood up and approached me, observing my wounded leg. She raised her eyebrow and then cracked a half-smile.

"You just fought Jasper." She said flatly.

"I just defeated Jasper." I corrected her.

"Nobody can completely defeat him." She retorted. "You just figured it out like I did. Except it was obvious and I didn't get cut like you did." She smirked at me. I shook my head looking at her and Rotom eyed her cautiously.

"What's your problem." I spat at her.

"I don't have one. You do, though." She said, crossing her arms.

"You're so rude, and you wouldn't tell me your name when we first met. You just left without saying anything." I said looking at her black eye makeup.

"Please be nice to our newest associate, Vesper." My attention shifted to the doorway of the commons we were in as Talia stole both of our attention. The only thing I knew about the girl standing next to me was that she possessed a Gengar and her name was Vesper. I said the name without any volume to feel how it would sound in my mouth. Vesper.

Talia stood in the doorway and I could see her face clearly now. It was how I thought of it to be from before, but she was slim in her dark dress. She walked into the commons and joined the two of us.

"Why don't you go back to reading, Vesper, while Aria and I have a little chat." Talia, said as Vesper returned to her chair and restarted her book. I sat on a couch near the fire and faced Talia. I placed Rotom beside me and he just sat on the fabric, looking up at the both us while we talked.

"Well, you're here which means you defeated Jasper. You were just three seconds short of beating Vesper's time." I looked at the girl who was reading. She didn't take eyes off of her book and just read in the light of the fire but I knew in my heart that was listening to us. Why didn't Talia excuse her from the room altogether was beyond me.

"You don't seem excited." Talia looked at me with her head on an angle.

"Oh sorry." I said looking at Rotom who sat on the couch. It looked kind of funny and he looked at me viciously for joking at him.

"It's a huge responsibility to be apart of the chateau, you are aware of this, yes?" I nodded, then looked over and noticed that Vesper had left the room with her book. I continued nodding until Talia opened her mouth again.

"Do you know why I had you fight Jasper?" She looked at me, and was well aware that I wasn't completely paying attention to her.

"To test my physical strengths? Which I lack in." I said to her.

"To assess your strengths and weaknesses." Talia said, looking from Rotom to my eyes. I was stunned when that last sentence registered in my mind. I didn't think about this until now but people were watching me conduct my test. That means people saw when I got scratched and when I figured out how to beat Jasper. They also saw me talking to Rotom.

"I was watching the whole thing along with Crow and some of our other trainers. You were unanimously agreed on by five of us, including me. Do you want to know the rest of your results?" She said, but it felt like she would tell me even if I had said no.

"You showed a memorable physical strength on the battlefield. Despite, being attacked by Jasper you managed to stay strong in that high-intensity situation. You showed courage and intuitiveness. A Ghost trainer must possess these qualities in order to be successful. We here in the chateau require your complete focus when we train you in special operations, because the slightest mishap can lead you to your death." I watched her mouth move and when she finished I nodded, and looked at the fire when she finished talking. I looked away, then back to her face.

"You did however, reveal several undesirable imperfections about yourself, but in order to be selected for our team, you must possess an equal amount of strengths and flaws or the imbalance will lead you to your own demise."

"What are my flaws." I said looking at her earnestly. I was never too excited to talk about myself or hear others talking about me to me and it made me feel a smidgen of awkward.

"You are reckless. You allowed yourself to be the target of Jasper's relentless strikes when Rotom could have taken the blows for you." She explained my mistakes very solemnly and it made me nervous and a little bit angry. I never thought of myself as reckless. Maybe I did some things impulsively but I wanted to help Rotom and I get out of that situation.

"He's my partner. I would do anything for him and-"

"Do you realize we are at war?" She said shushing me. "In a war it is either do or die and although your devotion to your pokemon is formidable it's impulsive and unhealthy on the battlefield. As your mentor, I will attempt to rid this poor quality from you through your training." I nodded, discouragingly at her.

"Next," And I thought wow, I must've really screwed up. "Something interesting came up when we all talked about you. One of my associates said he figured out your fear from watching you." My heart was racing when she stated this. My fear? How could somebody figure out my fear from watching me battle?

"Yes. Usually we don't notice a trainer's fear but you were different. We noticed that when you momentarily stopped the battle to hug your pokemon when it got hurt." Talia said and I blinked, looking at Rotom who was looking up at me. We sat there in the room with the fire and I was getting really uncomfortable with all this information being thrown at me. It was also getting really hot and I started fidgeting on the couch we were both sitting at. I think Talia noticed I was uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything of it and just readjusted herself as well.

"You fear for those around you. You can't stand when those close to you experience pain. When they do, you feel twice the pain they feel. You feel theirs and your own. That's something we've never seen before and it can be very cumbersome when you're in battle for your life against the Society or Team Galactic, for instance. When you are training, don't let your emotions cloud your judgment. I've seen far too many fall because of their inability to control their feelings." I cringed when she said this. Somebody had spot on, analyzed me and now I had to live the rest of my life knowing that people knew how I felt on the inside.

"It's alright Aria. Everyone normally starts off with poor qualities. But through hard work and dedication, you will become a strong special operations trainer and a valuable material to the chateau. All of us here are. We live and serve the Bridge. And soon, you will, too." I was sweating now. Someone had actually guessed my fear just by a single fact. It was true. But it hurt being told that.

"Is that why you don't like looking at the fire?" Talia said, looking at me and to the fire in one quick turn of the neck. I nodded and looked into the fire, almost getting teary at the sight of those flames. Talia looked at me and pressed her lips together lightly, then adjusted herself closer to me and placed her hand on mine.

"You can tell my anything. I may be one of the leaders of the Bridge but I'm always here for you." She said looking at me eyes. I began tearing up a bit, but I managed to tell her the story of how I got here. I went into detail of my encounter with Team Galactic and the Society. I told her about the flames and Dusknoir and how it haunted me in my dreams. She nodded when I told her this but I could see it wasn't affecting her like it was affecting me.

She shook her head but didn't take her hand off mine. She told me she was very sorry about Dusknoir but that I had a life I had to continue living. Those words made me think about something my father had told me when I graduated from high school. He told me that he was getting older and someday I would be on my own. I would have a husband or kids perhaps but he told me the number one thing he didn't want to leave this world with, was leaving me by myself. He wanted me to always be there for someone so that I wouldn't ever tread alone. Rotom was my partner for life, but my Dad wanted me to get married, have kids and have a better life than he said he had.

"Aria, when you're here, we are a family. I want you to hear this now so you don't think I don't like you when you're in training. Your instructors, including myself, will be very tough on you when you are training in special operations." She said looking at me. I nodded and said that was okay but I was more concerned with finding my father at the moment. Remembering him and his words made me agitated and even more uncomfortable and I couldn't handle it without opening my big, impulsive mouth.

"I need to say something." I said interrupting Talia as she was telling me about the last mission the chateau was responsible for finishing.

"What." She said, a little annoyed with me.

"I promise that I will train and I will be the best student you've ever had."

"Yes?"

"It's just my father."

"Your father is keeping you from training in the Bridge?" Talia looked at me annoyed, curious and a little aggravated as well.

"No. He's back home in Twinleaf. And that's the thing. I think the Society is after him. I want to bring him here. To the Bridge." After a few moments of absorbing this information, Talia stood up and my heart started quickening again. Rotom floated up and I also stood.

"Very well. Your training begins now." She said, looking at me rather curiously.

"But I told you."

"Your fear is knowing that those around you are hurting. I can't train an operative when she's not giving a hundred and ten percent. Go find your Dad, but know this." She raised her finger at the large ceiling. "He is not allowed to stay here while you train. That is detrimental to your success." I bowed my head and she finally stopped talking.

"This is your first mission so make it a good one. Then make sure you return here for your training, alright Aria?" She looked at me like I was a child.

"I promise you the mission will be smooth and clean. Then I'll come back here and, I give you my word that I will train without being impulsive or letting my emotions get in the way." I extended my hand to hers. She looked at it, but shook it firmly and then Talia disappeared into the darkness.

"Ready Rotom?" I looked at my Ghost pokemon who bounced happily and we, too entered the darkness of the chateau, heading for the castle gates. As I walked I noticed the same hanging knight on the wall to my right and ignored its presence when I walked right beside it, when it could have breathed on my shoulder. I walked through the same hallway I had entered in through and soon I was reunited with the drawbridge. Rotom and I walked across the drawbridge, walking through the long hallway headed for the lift that would take us back to the Psychic floor.


	13. Chapter 13 - Evelyn

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 13: Evelyn

The next day I woke up late into the afternoon. Everything about it was hellish and I remember getting up with difficulty. Pains and aches argued on how to better cause me physical anguish as they debated in the lower regions of my back and shoulders. Everything was just slow and painful as my muscles screamed in agony. The fading memory of my dad is what kept me sitting, propped upright on the bedside granted to me by the Bridge, contemplating on what I would do. It would be impossible to walk around Sinnoh the way my situation stands. Everything I knew was a lie and my whole world crumbled before me.

Rotom floated nearby and looked around the room we were in. He hadn't had the chance to see where we were sleeping because it was really dark inside the Bridge after my colossal victory in the abyss. I would go to Hera today and maybe talk to her about leaving to get my father. But it wasn't just about my father anymore. It was about Sinnoh as a whole.

All my life I've been living securely, due to the "protection" of my Society guardians. But now that I've seen their true colors everything has changed. Those fences that line my cities aren't to keep enemies away. They're to keep us in. For "protection." The Society has lied to me my entire life. I'm one of the only people in my region who knows the truth. Whatever it takes, I will topple the corruption that is destroying my region. They will pay for what they did to Dusknoir.

Rotom sensed my solemnity and orbited my head, averting my scheming to his silliness.

"What are you doing?" I smiled at him as he floated around my face like I was the sun and he, a planet. He shrugged his electric shoulders and stopped to face me.

"You looked like you were in deep thought and I began to worry you were having a stroke." To which I rolled my eyes and stood up. It was weird but Rotom seemed to make some of my aches go away but not the ones in my shoulders. I could really use a massage.

"I was thinking about Dad. We need to find him and bring him here where it's safe." We started to exit my room, and began walking down the mazes of hallways, passing by unfamiliar doors and hearing strange voices emanating from them. With each door I pictured a trainer whose Psychic pokemon were using their psychic abilities to make objects float. Then I realized that's just a stereotype with Psychic pokemon and dismissed the thought.

Rotom and I wandered through the hallways and just before the fear could swell in my soul over the fact that we had gotten lost, I saw a familiar door and approached it. This door was where I had last seen Hera's boyfriend, Alex. We approached it and it opened for us automatically. I saw Alex standing next to a boy about his age and another boy much younger than them.

The younger boy wore a red hat that sported a dark pokeball on it. His light blue sweater was zipped down to his pants, but was open enough to reveal his white belt. His shoes were a colorful red and squeaked when he walked around the two boys. His hair was long but not like mine, for it was nestled in his cap and only barely reached his neck. When he saw me standing in the doorway like a fool, his eyes remained fixated on me until Alex noticed and called me over.

"This is the girl I was telling you about." Alex motioned to the tall, tan guy. His eyes fluttered when our eyes first met and he greeted me with a tantalizing smile that gripped me from the inner reaches of my soul and left me stunned in all of my desires. He extended one hand to meet mine and I shook it like my Dad had taught me, when I was younger. I gripped his large hand in my own and shook it firmly.

"So you're Aria? Well my name is Vance." He said, never allowing our eyes to part. When they did I caught a glimpse of the boy standing next to Vance, and he blushed when my eyes fell upon him.

"And you?" Alex beckoned at the kid who issued a stressed grunt.

"I'm Drayke. Nice to meet you, Aria." I smiled, when he finished, and he grew redder than the reddest of Octilery.

"Drayke, why don't you go get Hera from the Gardens?" Alex reached over and placed a free hand on Drayke's shoulder. Drayke gave a sullen nod, looked at me then to Vance.

"Fine, but only if Vance comes with me so I don't get bored and lonely." Alex rolled his eyes and the two boys left for the Gardens. As they left I saw life in both of them. They filled a hole in me that has been left gaping for a long time now. Rotom and I were beckoned by Alex to follow him up to the same table we had been talking at before. I took the seat right in front of him and Rotom floated somewhere nearby.

"Do you like the guys?"

"They seem alright." I looked around the room.

"The kid likes you."

"I'm aware." I gave a sort of half-chuckle.

"I asked them if they would accompany you on the outside. On your mission." Alex looked sternly into my face. I could see in his eyes that he regretted his decision but pursued it, regardless. It's too dangerous to be living in a world where young people are the only ones who possess the truth, I thought thinking what Drayke had done to get him into the Bridge.

I told him they seemed like fine companions and I would feel safe with them if I got to know them more. Then I asked Alex if he would tell me more about them.

"The kid, Drayke, is a Dragon-trainer. He started training with pokemon at the age of five and has developed a really close bond with his dragons. When he went to school he also at the top of his class, until he had to leave because he was abandoned by his parents. They just couldn't manage a child and so they left him and moved themselves to a faraway place."

"That's so stupid." I said shaking my head.

"Yeah." Alex said looking down. "He was quickly accepted into the Bridge because his adoptive guardian, also his aunt is the leader of the Dragon house here. Her name's Margaret. She was here yesterday as well." I nodded. We talked about Drayke a lot, but I forgot to ask him about Vance, when the two boys strolled into Alex's office with Hera. When she saw me, her face lit up and she came over. Rotom watched as we embraced in the room and then the five of us stood in a circle as Alex took the floor.

"Vance, Drayke. You both know the mission, right?" They both nodded.

"Vance, you're the most experienced so without any doubt you'll be the designated team leader and come talk to me once you guys get back, alright?" Vance gave a small nod. Hera pulled me over and I looked at Rotom while Alex debriefed Vance and Drayke on the mission.

"I know you'll find your Dad. I feel it in my gut that he misses you and will be exultant when he finds out you got two gym badges." She smiled at me and I could see my Dad's face in my vision then blinked him away, returning to Hera's shining face.

"Thanks."

"Trust me when I saw Vance and Drayke I knew they were a perfect match for your team. Drayke may be just a little kid but some of my students who are almost twice his age have a hard time against him in battle. Vance on the other hand is an advanced Fire trainer and his expertise in combat and survival will keep you all safe, promise." Hera must've seen that Alex needed us over and I turned around with Rotom to meet up with the boys. Alex said some words of encouragement and Vance led us out of the office. The last thing I saw was Alex's unchanging face and Hera waving goodbye before the automatic door closed.

"So you're a Ghost trainer, Alex tells me?" Vance said as he guided us to a region of the Psychic floor I had never been in. We criss-crossed a hallway that was brown along the walls and the floor remained shiny and white like from before.

"Yeah, well I don't have any specific proficiency, I just feel comfortable when I battle with Ghost pokemon." Drayke nodded and blurted that he feels the same way about his dragons. I smiled and he blushed, then looked away.

We walked through this unfamiliar hallway until we were met with an elevator. The elevator was a cargo elevator and looked like it could hold an armored vehicle or two. It was metallic on all sides and its buttons were encased in a silvery metal that only opened with Vance's thumbprint. We boarded the lift and I picked a corner in the back to lean on. Rotom floated nearby and Drayke was eyeballing my pokemon to which Rotom returned an icy glare.

We ascended in this elevator for what seemed like an eon before it finally came to a stop on a dim floor, that I had never seen before. Vance told me we were now in the disguised part of the Bridge that was made to look like a regular warehouse. He said we were just under Hearthome City now and it was one more elevator ride away from the surface world. Well he has right about the elevator because that second ride was an equally mundane experience as the first. The whole time I saw out of the corner of my eye, the frantic eyes of the little boy, Drayke. It seemed like he hadn't seen any of what I was seeing like this was the first time he had been here, too.

Vance led us through narrow hallway after narrow hallway until natural sunlight shone in my face. It was a glorious and sorrowful experience packed into one. I approached several glass doors separating me from fresh oxygen when Vance barred me from the doors. His eyes were filled with concern.

"Before we leave I have to make a couple things clear." He began. "It's really important that we all stay together at all times. We are after all, Bridge operatives, so if Team Galactic or the Society get hold of our identities, we're royally screwed, you know? Oh, and I know that Alex assigned me as team leader but that doesn't mean too much to me, here. This is a rescue mission so don't feel like you don't a voice, alright? There, I think that's all I wanted to say so we better get started, I hope to reach Coronet by sunfall." Vance said releasing his hand from my shoulder and the three of us looked outside to witness something completely ordinary. Vance opened the door and outside, as I spun around, I could see we had emerged from a warehouse in an entire neighborhood of warehouses.

"Where are we?" I asked looking at Vance. He said we were in Hearthome City but I don't recall seeing this during my first visit. After pondering this it hit me. Oh right, that was the night I was running for my life, the night Dusknoir… Well it's irrelevant where we are in Hearthome City but the fact of the matter is that we were all fugitives who could be apprehended in a moments notice.

Rotom buzzed in my ear and I looked in the distance to see soldiers guarding the same barbed fence I had escaped from a few nights ago. Vance had taken notice of Rotom at this point and walked up to the Electric/Ghost pokemon, who in response was startled and let out a mild electric shock.

"Oh my god! Vance I'm so sorry, you startled Rotom and it was just… are you okay?" I looked at his shoulder where Rotom zapped him and looked back at Rotom who mouthed the word "sorry."

"I just wanted to see it up close, my bad." Vance chuckled and regained his composure. Drayke looked afraid and from that point on didn't walk near Rotom. I could tell Rotom was indifferent about other human beings at first, but I knew what kind of personality he had and he loved to act all tough and aggressive around strangers to assert his dominance. Kinda like a dog. But Rotom's not my pet. He's my partner and we respect each other as equals. That's how we battle and so far it's proved to be somewhat effective.

I realized something important. The Society surely knows my face and they wouldn't hesitate if they saw me so how is that we can just walk around freely? I brought this up by Vance and his explanation was astounding.

"At the Bridge, we don't usually ascend to the surface world, but we have tasks that need to be completed, new recruits are always being taken in, recently at a significantly slow rate, but they still come. Some of our operatives come up to the surface many times while others have dwelled down below for most of their lives. We are on an important mission and our identities are hindrances to our goals. Down there you may be known as Aria, but up here forget about it. That was stripped from you the minute you learned the truth about the Society. You can pick a new name while you are up here, but I have selected the name Vance and Drayke picked his.

"Wait so your real names aren't Vance and Drayke?"

"It's easier than always carrying around two names, don't you agree?" Vance looked at me and I looked at Rotom incredulously.

"So I can't even be referred to as Aria anymore?" I looked at him pleadingly, like my name was the only thing next to Rotom that I couldn't afford to lose.

"I'm sorry, what would you like to be called now?" Vance asked.

"Picking a new name is fun," Drayke piped up. "And you don't need a last name when you're in the Bridge, so pick something creative like me." He smiled broadly. I thought about this for a long minute, leaving the four us standing (and floating in Rotom's case) while I thought of a new name for myself. Marissa? Sally? Candace? As names rapid fired through my brain one emerged and I knew, without a doubt, that if not for Aria I would be preferred to be called:

"Evelyn."

"That's a… a pretty name. I've never met an 'Evelyn.'" Vance said smiling.

"What about Eve? Evelyn's too long." Drayke moaned. I shook my head. I wanted it to be like that.

"Evelyn it is. Good to meet you." Vance bowed his head, jokingly.

"Now Drayke has some sunglasses and a hair tie for you. If you look slightly different from your original self, you'll easily fool the Society with a simple disguise." I couldn't believe this. I always wore my long, brown hair down. More importantly, I had to get a new name and make myself look like I wasn't Aria Verne Ketchum. I tied my hair up in a bun and put on the sunglasses.

"Would you rather we dye and cut your hair?" I shook my head and tied up my hair.

"There's Evelyn." Drayke pointed and laughed childishly. I rolled my eyes beneath the glasses and Rotom just looked at me like I was a stranger. I didn't know how I felt about that.

"We're not gonna risk a confrontation with those Society Guards at the entrance to Hearthome, so we can just sneak through the Hearthome Forest, don't worry I know these woods like the back of my hand." Vance assured me. The four us wandered through these woods and I had no idea where we were. Drayke seemed uneasy, too.

"Hey." I said to him as we were walking. He didn't look at me and I knew he was red in the face.

"Yeah." His voice squeaked.

"Is this your first time up here?" I asked and he returned a nod, while still looking forward as we trekked between trees and shrubs.

"My aunt was really annoying about me going up here. When Alex told me I would be going up, my aunt barged into his room and they argued. When my aunt came back she said she would prepare me for the overworld. My aunt's a professional Dragon trainer and I learned a lot from her like to never ask strangers for directions or to talk to anyone wearing a spacesuit." He grinned proudly and I nodded at his story while I could tell Rotom was sighing and rolling his eyes. He asked me about Rotom and so I told him. Rotom has been my partner since I was in the sixth grade. Without him I might not even be alive. With his guidance and presence as my best friend, we've gotten ourselves out of more messes than anyone could believe.

Drayke oo-ed and aw-ed as I talked. I could tell Vance was amused by my story as well. I looked back at Rotom several times, but he never once looked at me. It felt like he was angry with me. I allowed Drayke and Vance to go ahead of Rotom and I so that we could be alone for a little while. When I saw that Drayke had waddled next to Vance and they started talking, I immediately took off my sunglasses and looked at Rotom in the eyes.

"Okay, talk to me, because you were sending me daggers when I was talking to Drayke."

"That's not even that kids name, Aria. Things are getting really whack right now." Rotom stared at me as he floated nearby. I agreed with him that things started to get a little weird but I was at the mercy of the Bridge. As long as I did what I was supposed to do, everyone was happy. I accepted their laws and they accepted me as a free soul of Sinnoh.

"I'm just going to pretend I'm someone else until we get back down there." I pointed back to the warehouse that covered up the Bridge.

"It doesn't seem like these people care all too much about 'Aria' and this 'Evelyn' is the new recruit into the Bridge as far as they're all concerned. By the way, it was some move of you picking that name, Aria."

"They said I could pick any name." I retaliated.

"Well, I'm not buying into this, you're always going to be Aria to me." Rotom said, looking away from me and at the two boys walking in front of us. Vance noticed during some point that we had strayed too far behind them and waited with Drayke for Rotom and I too catch up.

"Sorry, I just needed to be alone with my pokemon for a little." I said smiling and slipping on my sunglasses.

"Do you talk to your pokemon, Evelyn?" Drayke asked me.

"Yeah, and he's a good listener, too." I didn't even have to look to be able to tell that Rotom scowled silently after I said that. Vance beckoned us and said we were close to the exit of the forest. The land dipped up and we had to venture to the top of a steep hill in order to go any further. It was a pretty difficult journey reaching the top. At one point the hill became so steep I had to get down on all fours and maneuver until I could stand comfortably. Vance was the first to make it to the top of the hill. Shortly after, I got there and Rotom was by my side at all times, even guiding me once when I needed him.

"Where's Drayke? I can't find him anywhere." Vance said running around frantically, peering over the hill and looking around us. Rotom and I looked around but couldn't find him either. I began panicking. It was almost twenty minutes into our first day on the surface and something was already going wrong. Vance was calling out Drayke's name and there was no response.

"I'm up here, guys!" We heard his voice and looked around everywhere. My eyes finally saw him riding atop an Altaria which he instructed to land right beside us on the ground.

"Sorry, but that hill was really steep and I just couldn't climb it, so I had Altaria fly me up."

Rotom rolled his eyes. Vance wiped his brow and told him to say if he was gonna fly before scaring us like that again. Beyond the hill and after I had calmed down a bit, I noticed the trees slowly began clearing and the tall mountain Coronet loomed ahead of us, as if it was guarding the Sinnoh region.

I noticed the sun was entering the side of the sky, beginning to set. We had emerged to the surface late in the afternoon and the day was already beginning to end. What a bummer.

"We're going to find a cave and sleep there tonight." Vance said in front of us as we walked towards the mountain.

"Sleep in a cave?" I asked incredulously.

"Well we can't just order a room when the Society is hunting you down. You know there was a manhunt for you, right?"

"No." I said, Drayke looked at Vance uneasily.

"This whole week since you joined up with the Bridge we've been looking extensively at what the Society was doing in Hearthome and they were going door to door and skulking around the warehouses looking for you. We were almost on red alert when one of them wandered into our building. Until we can figure out a way to make you virtually invisible, you'll just have to deal with this makeshift disguise, unless you wanna cut your hair?" I shook my head no and there was no argument after that.

It seemed like we had been walking for around an hour when I started to notice that it was getting darker. The mountain I had seen before now stood much closer than before. The land began rising inconsiderably and I didn't take any notice of it. Vance held out one hand halting us suddenly when Vance saw a man walking up to us.

"Society." Drayke whispered with terror in his voice.

"Be cool." I ducked my head down as we walked passed the Society operative. I wondered why he would be patrolling this part of the forest and I concluded they were still hunting for me for what I did back in their headquarters. I saw the shoes of the Society operative stop in front of us and Drayke stopped us as well.

"Hi." Vance said and we continued walking.

"Aria?" The Society man said. Vance and Drayke were frozen with fear and I looked up at Rotom who was staring wide-eyed at the man directly in front of us. His face was so familiar and I could never forget meeting this man.

"Castor." I said smiling, letting my sunglasses droop on top of my nose.

"You know this guy, Evelyn?" Vance looked at me and I sighed when he called me by that name.

"Evelyn? I thought your name was Aria?" Castor stood there looking at me. He wasn't wearing his signature trench coat, and instead wore Society white clothes. It must've been a miracle that we ran into him here.

"How ya been?" I walked up to him.

"Evelyn, don't!" Vance tried to stop me.

"It's alright, there pal I'm not going to hurt her." Castor looked at Vance easily. Drayke and Vance returned a cold look back but I persisted.

"Trust me guys, I know him."

"Just because you know him doesn't mean he isn't one of the Society scum who poison our world." Vance raised his voice. They were conditioned to despise the Society and Team Galactic. I resent both factions as well, but Castor just seemed so normal and he let me in. I needed to know a few things, too, and if any Society member would tell those things to me it would be him.

"Aria. Or Evelyn," He looked at me weirdly. "I don't know what you did to piss off the Society Executives but they ordered everyone to apprehend you if we found you."

"You're not taking her." Vance stood in front of me and Drayke appeared at my side ready to deliver a blow to anyones knees.

"Relax, I'm not goin' do anything. Relax, alright? We just need to talk." Castor raised his arms to show he wasn't going to do anything but when Drayke walked forward a little, I heard a growling coming from Castor's direction.

"What's that!" Vance said alert and pulled out a pokeball.

"It's just my pokemon, your friend is wandering too close and it's making her uneasy." I looked down and sure enough behind Castor's legs I saw a shadowy pokemon peering up at us humans with her murky eyes. When I stepped forward it lightened and jumped at me. Vance became uneasy but I knelt down and the Umbreon I had met before sat before me elated that I was there.

"Wow, Aria slash Evelyn my Umbreon has never been this affectionate with another trainer and even your Rotom who seems pretty aggressive is friendly with it." Castor laughed and I joined with him as Vance and Drayke just watched us.

"I'm not going to hurt you like I said, but I do need you to trust me and I will trust you." He said and I nodded.

"It was smart of you to hide out wherever it is that you were hiding because everyone was looking for you. I have a deep feeling in my gut that you are now involved with the Bridge. I thought it was just a rumor and then your friends revealed their hostility for a Society member so I sorta pieced everything together. It's totally fine that you're with them I won't say anything and you can hold me to that."

"She may trust you but we don't." Vance opened his mouth.

"Vance." I said looking at him.  
"No, Evelyn, this isn't the time to make friends, not with him."

"Evelyn or Aria you can trust me. To prove that, I would give you my partner to make you believe me."

"You would give me your Umbreon?" I looked at him astonished.

"Not permanently, only until you see that there are other people in the Society and perhaps even in Team Galactic, who aren't ravenous villains that eat babies or whatever you Bridge folks think of us. I will tell you that you're taking the right path to Mt. Coronet. It'll keep you hidden and I hope you make it to wherever you're going, but I have to get going myself."

"He's gonna report that he found you." Drayke said worriedly.

"I swear to everything holy that I will not tell anyone that I saw you, okay? You have my word. Now I have to go, but it was nice seeing you Evelyn." He smiled and went his way.

"See ya, Castor."

We found a cave when it got really dark. The rest of the climb was chilly but I was able almost match Vance's dexterity and endurance while climbing. Drayke and Vance didn't say anything to me as we climbed and it wasn't until we had entered the cave that I broke the ice.

"Okay you two, you'll have to talk to me at some point."

"I can't believe we're trusting a Society operative. That goes against everything we

believe, Evelyn." Vance looked up at me as he was setting up blankets that Drayke carried with him in his backpack.

"Please, Vance." I put my arm around his shoulder and sat next to him.

"If you trust me, then you can trust him. Besides he didn't ask where we were going only that we were going to Mt. Coronet which anyone could've figured out. If he really wanted to trap us he would've asked where we're headed to."

"Just to be on the safe side, we're going around to Floaroma Town in order to prevent getting trapped in Oreburgh. That's my order." Vance said as he continued setting up our beds.

"Come on out guys!" Drayke yelled as he released his pokemon to hangout with us. He had a Flygon and his Altaria sitting next to him, to which Vance threw three pokeballs: unleashing his Flareon, Blaziken and Houndour. I didn't appreciate how Vance was treating Castor despite the fact that I barely knew either one of the two boys. I decided I would venture to the mouth of the cave and talk with Rotom since his wisdom, I would always accept. I told Vance I was going to be at the mouth of our cave and he told me not to be gone for too long. He asked his Flareon to create a fire in a pit that he arranged from sticks, rocks and some newspaper all of which Drayke had provided.

As Rotom and I walked through the cave we noticed several Zubat sleeping, nestled on the roof of the cave. They were hanging upside down, but were huddled close together forming families of Bat Pokemon. Rotom and I found a cliff around where we had primarily entered and sat down, allowing us a perfect view of the sky above. Hearthome City would be somewhere far away and I was glad of it.

"Did you see how hostile he was to Castor?" I began.

"Yeah, it's probably just in his nature. Him and everyone in the Bridge are sworn enemies against the Society and Team Galactic. I mean most of them who are in the Bridge got there because of one of the two factions, you know?" Rotom responded, to which I nodded slightly. Flashbacks of my experience with the Society began rushing back into my memory as I remembered the tears from the whole thing. The Society had definitely done me wrong and I wouldn't standby and let them do that to other people.

"We need to find Dad and bring him back."

"What will we do then?" Rotom turned to me, and I could see his plasma face looked genuinely intrigued for my next response.

"The Society is corrupt with violence and anger pent up from fighting against another faction for many years. Our world needs a new leadership because our current one is so far out of line." I said looking up at the stars. The view from up here was gorgeous and I could see, very well, the shapes and constellations of the night sky.

"How do you expect to topple two powerful factions? I mean, they're not just going to step down because nobody is getting what they want. They will fight for power because once a man gets the power he desires, he will destroy everything to keep it." Rotom joined me in looking up at the stars, not noticing that a single tear ran down my cheek.

"We need to fight for everything that's right." Rotom began again. "Dusknoir would've wanted that if he were still alive." I sniffled and wiped my face. That memory will forever be burned into my skull until the day I die, because never have I seen someone throw an innocent pokemon into a fire, never have I seen such mistreatment of pokemon. It made me sick and angry to think people like that really existed.

"Do you trust Vance and Drayke?" I asked after a few minutes to calm myself down.

"I don't know." Came after two minutes of silence.

"Do you trust anyone in the Bridge?" I looked at him.

"Yes."

Another minute of silence came until Rotom asked if we should go back into our little chamber and get some sleep. When Rotom and I wandered in, Vance's Flareon peered up at us, let out a small yawn, and went back to sleep. I saw the fire they created had since died down, but that didn't stop my exhausted companions from dozing off. Drayke was sleeping on the puffy clouds of his Altaria while his Flygon slept nearby. Vance and his Fire pokemon slept opposite to Drayke, all sprawled out on the ground. I chose a spot where Vance had arranged some blankets and watched the fire die down until all that could be heard was the slight shuffling of wings from the cave.


	14. Chapter 14 - Snow Land Assault

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 14: Snow Land Assault

Drayke shook me awake. My breath was frosty and I began shivering from the cold.

"Get up, Evelyn!" I rubbed my eyes and sat up on the mass of sheets sprawled out underneath my body. Rotom was buzzing frantically overhead and Vance was nowhere in sight. Sight was the other thing. Everything was dim and seemed like we were still in the night but I got significant sleep so that wouldn't be the case.

"What's going on?" I yawned. My teeth rattled once from the cold, so I wrapped myself a poncho from one of Vance's blankets.

"A blizzard!" Drayke said, running around. There were no pokemon lying asleep, instead the chamber was empty except for myself, Rotom and Drayke, who ran to the entry to the main cave. He stared into the mouth where we had come in from and said some things to himself, inaudible to me.

"What's going on?" I looked at Rotom.

"I don't know, the kid woke me up yelling about a freak snow storm."

"But it's summer." I yawned again. "What time is it?"

"Way early in the morning. We got like a good four and a half hours of sleep." Rotom looked weary while floating in the dim cave. I rose up and went over to where Drayke was standing. At the mouth of the cave, I saw Vance and his three fire pokemon trying to melt the snow, but it kept advancing nearer into the cave. His Flareon was blown by a massive pile of airborne snow and I watched as it shook icy cold from its small body and bolted over to the mass of snow.

"What the hell?" I said aloud. Drayke looked up at me, nervous and I jogged over to Vance and his pokemon.

"Vance where did this snow come from?" When he saw me he just pointed with his chin to the mass of snow blocking our exit. Vance's Blaziken was vigorously kicking flames with its powerful legs, while the Houndour blew embers onto the fragile crystalline snowflakes to melt them.

"Evelyn." Vance said finally, after the snow kept blowing further into the cave. "This snow must've collapsed into our chamber during the night. I felt the cold and began fighting it off with my pokemon. Drayke is freaking out so why don't you take my Flareon and find another way out of here. This snow can't be too bad but I'm gonna try and melt the rest of it. Careful not to get lost, please." Vance said worrisomely. His Flareon yipped up at me and wanted me to follow.

First we went back into the chamber where Drayke was sitting on the ground, shivering. I picked up a blanket and wrapped him with it. It was still warm from when I was sleeping on it and Drayke's face lit up when I wrapped him. His Dragon pokemon were probably kept bundled in his pokeballs.

"Dragons are really weak in the cold." He shivered. Rotom floated near Drayke's head unable to do anything. I told him that after he warms up, to go help out Vance because he was in shorts and was probably freezing as well. From our little chamber I could hear the grunting of Vance's Blaziken and the barking from his Houndour. Drayke looked up at me with fearing eyes and I assured him everything would be alright.

"Drayke, you're a brave little kid, and I believe in you. If you feel better, you should go help

Vance because he needs you right now. Your Dragons can really make a difference." I kissed his forehead and ran off with Flareon and Rotom. I looked back once to see Drayke sitting there red-faced, then bolted deeper into the cave. The cold receded but everything became dark and I couldn't see a foot in front of me. Rotom's light wasn't enough to make me able to see down the rest of the tunnel we were running through.

"Rotom, Flareon, anyway we can light up this cave?" I said to the two pokemon. They both understood and used Discharge and Flamethrower, respectively. The attacks revealed the cave to be a straight line that angled downward. It became dark again, but I figured there must be another entrance. I could hear the breathing of Flareon as we ran and shortly nearby Rotom made several buzzing sounds. A light appeared at the end of the cave and my running pace changed to a dashing sprint.

Nearing the exit we zoomed through the rest of the cave, which was devoid of any Bat pokemon, and ran outside. It was very cold, as the entire ground was covered in snow. I looked up at Mt. Coronet and saw thundering clouds and snow falling on the other side. The pokemon and I had run into a small valley in between Mt. Coronet and other mountains that separated the region in half. Though, I still couldn't understand how we were getting any snow in the middle of summer.

"Please let them be okay." I huffed and could see my icy breath before me. I looked behind me and saw that Flareon and Rotom were both growling at something. When I looked around there wasn't another person or a pokemon in sight.

"What's there, Rotom?" I looked at my Ghost pokemon, trying to make sense of what was happening. We were in a crisis situation but something is happening here that doesn't quite add up.

"There's something here."

"Something?" I winced from the cold. Then something behind me growled and both the pokemon turned to face me. When I turned around I gasped when I saw a floating phantom staring me in the face, watching as it floated in the air like Rotom.

"R-Rotom? What is that thing?" I asked Rotom when the pokemon advanced nearer to me. I had never seen this pokemon before and since my poketch had been destroyed by the Society there wasn't anything I could do to gather information about my adversary. The icy pokemon was small like Rotom, and covered in snowy white. It had long white, stringy arms that grew into wing-like appendages where its fingers sprouted out of. Its head sported two ice horns and its eyes were a deep blue. Its eyes were fixated on all three of us, but it gave me a frightening aura that caused me to freeze with fear and from the cold. The most defining piece about this mysterious pokemon was the red ribbon tied carefully around its waist.

"Froslass." Rotom spat the word out like it was dirt. "She's an Ice as well as a Ghost type."

"_Frosss,_" The Froslass growled. Flareon became enraged, and ran after the elegantly frightening Ghost pokemon. It was two against one and both of my pokemon had attacks that Ice and Ghost pokemon were weak to.

"Wait maybe we can try and reason with her before we fight. We probably stumbled into her territory and she's angry because we won't leave." I said looking at the Froslass trying to reason with her.

"_Frossss._" The Ice/Ghost pokemon continued growling. She then raised both of her arms above her head and gathered energy into a dark sphere that oscillated between her skinny fingers.

"That's a Shadow Ball!" Rotom yelled. She released the ball of energy which launched at Rotom. Rotom was able to dodge, but I had to move over because it seemed like she had flung it at me. Flareon screeched and barked at me.

"Use your flamethrower!" I pointed into the direction of the Froslass but she just twisted her body and spun around the flames before the attack could make contact. Flareon charged at Froslass, releasing more and more flames towards the fragile ice pokemon.

"_Friss!_" The Froslass growled. She raised her arms and fired another Shadow Ball at Flareon, sending it flying backwards. It got up with great difficulty from a powerful Ghost attack.

"Rotom help out Flareon! Use Ominous Wind!" I ordered Rotom to attack the pokemon, but she just flew around the murky attack like it was nothing. I saw her through the blackish haze and it seemed like she was cackling at us. Or it could've been the howling of the hail she created. The snowstorm grew large and engulfed the entire snowy plane we were on. The rocky terrain was transformed into a snowy battlefield that generated massive ice shards flying through the air. I even had to duck once to avoid being impaled by one of them.

"Flareon! Rotom!" I called out to the pokemon, but couldn't see through the thick snow fall. I wandered through the hail trying to find my pokemon and avoid being impaled by airborne icicles. While walking, Froslass appeared before me in the hail and growled viciously. I turned around and ran away. Rotom was buzzing somewhere nearby and I called to him to use an Ominous Wind to blow away the storm.

"_Frossss_" The Froslass growled again and followed me through the storm, firing off an occasional Shadow Ball that I had to jump away from. One of her strikes actually struck the snow in front of me and caused a pile of it to get blown into my face. I fumbled, trying to get it out of my eyes and it stung from the cold melting on my flesh. The Froslass was gearing up to strike me, but Rotom used another Ominous Wind that struck the Froslass and blew the hailstorm away. Flareon was facing away from us but turned around and fired a flamethrower once it could see again. Froslass glided underneath the fearsome blast of fire and if she weren't trying to kill us all I would've tried to make friends but that seems impossible at this point.

Rotom was floating chaotically, avoiding ghostly shadow attacks as he tried to make it

closer to her. Once he was close enough I ordered him to release that blue burst of lightning that Rotom was famous for. The Discharge attack was expelled from Rotom's body. Froslass darted underneath the attack and jolted another Shadow Ball which blasted Rotom several feet back until he collided with a snowy solid wall.

"Rotom!" I ran after my fallen pokemon, but Froslass was gliding furiously after me. She prepared another Shadow Ball which blasted snow all around me and this time I was smart enough to cover my eyes. Flareon jumped in front of me and guarded me with its Flamethrower but Froslass just seemed to know exactly where Flareon would direct the flames and carefully managed to avoid ever coming into proximity with those searing attacks.

I slipped back and dug Rotom out of a pile of snow where he lay and thankfully the attack wasn't enough to make Rotom lose consciousness.

"Damn, that was really powerful." Rotom winced but was able to float up into the frosty air.

"Frosssss!" The Froslass roared and her mouth glew a faint blue. Flareon growled and prepared to fire off another series of flames but was stopped short due to Froslass's attack. She used an Ice Beam that froze Flareon solid, before any flames could be used to defrost itself. The Froslass cackled and floated after us, leaving the vulnerable Flareon a standing ice sculpture.

"Froslass stop! We don't want to fight you!" I stood next to Rotom, as she floated, she pumped her arms to intimidate us. I was shocked at how agile and powerful she was, but she must be running out of energy and that would mean she would let us go.

"Friss, Frosssss!" She roared and shot another Ice Beam, this time it was directed at me. The frosty beam of ice was incredibly fast and I wasn't able to dodge the attack. I screamed in pain as the attack froze my entire right leg solid and it was frozen into the ground so I couldn't even move.

"I'm stuck!" I yowled. Rotom was flustered when he saw how Froslass caused me this pain and flung himself at her. She was intimidated by him and when he was within spitting distance, he shot her with a Discharge attack. She countered with her own Ice Beam. The two energy attacks collided and hers was evidently stronger.

Rotom wasn't able to retaliate and thus was blasted head on by her attack. He floated weakly to the ground, and didn't get back up, despite my yelling his name.

"Rotom no!" I yelled looking at my defeated Ghost pokemon. Then the image of the Ice pokemon came into view. She looked at me and my frozen leg, then floated viciously at me preparing to finish me off with a Shadow Ball. I didn't know what would happen once I was struck with that attack but she was cold-blooded and it seemed like after she was finished with me she would kill my pokemon.

"Stop!" I yelled at the icy ghost that was about to strike me down for good and I closed my eyes where the end was nigh.

"Dragonbreath!" I heard from afar. My eyes remained shut but all I heard was the Froslass get shot by an attack that came from up high near the peak of Mt. Coronet. I opened one eye to see the stricken Ice pokemon lying on the ground near me and she got back, then fiercely hunted after her attacker.

"Evelyn!" A familiar voice called from above me. I smiled warmly amid the cold and knew someone had come to my rescue. I, too, scouted the air for Froslass's assailant and saw flying in the air, Drayke atop his Flygon and they were marvelous while the flew. Drayke waved down at me and I waved up at him, and pointed at me injury which began shooting pains up to my skull. My leg was frozen into the ground and my flesh was freezing at subzero temperatures. If I didn't get out of this trap quickly, I would lose all feeling in my leg. I started rubbing and breathing heavily on the ice that coated my leg in any ditch attempt to thaw myself out.

At this time, Froslass found Drayke and Flygon in the air and started firing Ice Beams at them. I watched helplessly as Drayke flew around the icy beams and hoped that he wouldn't get hit. Dragons must be weak to ice which is why Flygon can't be hit by one of Froslass's attacks or else he would topple hundreds of feet and meet a harsh demise.

"Drayke!" I yelled at him. "Be careful!" He didn't look at me and instead guided his Flygon through the nasty attacks that almost would bring him to his death. From the ground I saw him throw a pokeball down near me and his Altaria ruffled its cloudlike wings and purred when it entered the world.

"Altaria, your master needs your help!" I looked up and the Altaria joined me in looking at Drayke flying through the air skillfully as he avoided all of Froslass's Ice Beams while flying on a Dragon pokemon. Altaria waddled up to me and began huffing on my frozen leg and I realized Drayke had flung his pokeball near me so that Altaria could free me while he distracted Froslass. I was also in shock over the fact that Froslass was able to take down Flareon, Rotom and still had enough fight to fire off multiple Ice Beams at Flygon and Drayke.

"Hey, careful," I said quietly to Drayke's Altaria. It looked up at me and tilted its head.

"If that Froslass sees you she'll come after you with her powerful Ice Beam." Altaria acknowledged my observation and looked at Froslass who was busy trying to blast Drayke and Flygon out of the sky.

"Ow." I winced when the cold shot up my body. Altaria and I were breathing heavily on my leg and barely did anything. We really needed a fire to defrost my leg but Flareon was also encased in ice. I looked over at Flareon and it was still immobile from the snow.

"Maybe you should go help Flareon?" I pointed when Altaria looked up at me. It tilted its head again then waddled over to the Flareon trying to avoid being in Froslass's line of fire. Altaria breathed a light dragonbreath at the frozen Flareon and my eyes were glued onto Drayke and his Flygon who began going offensive and shot dragonbreaths down at Froslass. She was able to float around the pillars of energy while she returned her own attacks.

She saw Altaria was trying to thaw out Flareon and I screamed when Froslass shot an Ice Beam at Altaria.

"Altaria watch out!" I yelled. Altaria heard my voice, flapped its wings and was shot upward into the air barely managing to avoid the attack. Froslass backed up to get both Dragon pokemon in her line of sight and I was impressed at her ability to analyze the situation while still fearing for my life. Another wave of cold pain rushed from my leg and I began losing feeling in it. "Shit." I don't want to have to cut my whole leg off but I won't have a choice if it becomes limp from the cold.

"Flareon! Can you hear me?" I yelled at the Fire pokemon encased in ice. It was at this time that I saw Flareon's mouth was almost completely defrosted. It seemed that Froslass had encased Flareon just as it was preparing to launch a Flamethrower and the heat from Flareon's suppressed attack was able to melt some of the ice.

"Flareon!" I yelled again. I watched now as Altaria and Flygon flew around Froslass's coordinated Ice Beams and prayed that neither of them would get struck. Drayke had timed a Dragonbreath perfectly and it hit Froslass when she was busy focusing on Altaria. Froslass was blasted into the snowy ground and another Dragonbreath was about to finisher her off when she darted away. Altaria flew after the fumbling Froslass and struck it from behind with its powerful wings. Froslass tumbled down a snowy hill deeper into the valley, meanwhile Flygon and Altaria landed near me. Drayke hopped off his Dragon and ran over to me. I hugged him and his hand touched my icy leg and he winced from the cold.

"Are you alright?" He said to me. I nodded my head and he looked around for the other pokemon. He saw Rotom lying on the ground and Flareon who was still trapped in the ice. Drayke ordered his Flygon to use another Dragonbreath to melt away the snow that surrounded Flareon. Once the ice got really thin Flareon's suppressed Flamethrower jolted out of its body and furiously pounded into the mountainous wall creating a huge dark spot that melted all the snow.

Flareon looked around for Froslass and stopped when it saw my condition. It ran up to me and breathed fire onto my frozen leg defrosting it. Once I was able to chip away myself from the ground and I sat in the snow, rubbing my leg from the cold.

"Where's Vance?" I huffed from the ground.

"He was attacked like you were." Drayke said. My eyes widened. The Froslass had taken on Vance and his Fire pokemon, defeated them then came after me. This was definitely a sight to behold.

"Drayke you need to go make sure Vance and his pokemon are okay." I looked up at him and stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going after that Froslass."

"Why?"

"Because it hurt Rotom and I want to calm it down before it destroys the entire Sinnoh region." I ran and picked up Rotom in my arms. He flickered his eyes awake and looked up at me as I ran down the snowy hill where I saw Froslass fall down into.

"We're not dead, Aria?" Rotom said while he lay weak in my arms.

"Drayke flew in to save the day. Him and his dragons took on Froslass and she tumbled down this hill." He looked down and searched for her. I knew Rotom would like some payback, too and when we reached the bottom of the hill I saw there was a river amid the snow but no Ice pokemon in sight. That's when Rotom motioned over at a patch of snow many feet away where Froslass was lying on her back resting. She hadn't even noticed that we had come down the hill.

I looked at Rotom who was beginning to fly out of my arms and was able to fly on his own.

"Are you alright? What if she attacks?" I whispered in the snowy terrain we stood in. Rotom and I looked at her and she rested in the ground peacefully. I looked beyond her as something shiny caught my eye. A metal pipe stood lonely in the snow just before the river and looked completely out of place. I quietly went over to inspect it and didn't cross too far when Rotom alerted that the Froslass had woken up. I watched her as she floated to life and growled at Rotom.

I looked around the out-of-place metal rod and noticed a mound of snow directly in front of it. This place must be where the Froslass lived or somewhere nearby. I saw Rotom and Froslass battling now for the second time. Round two of the fight was much slower than before. Both Ghost pokemon were weak from fatigue and their attacks were strained as well. Froslass was trying desperately to avoid all of Rotom's attacks but even his Ominous Wind was able to strike her.

Digging through the snowy mound, I uncovered a large wooden box. I gasped when I realized it must've been a coffin and this was a grave… that I was desecrating. The box was too big to contain a human so I conjectured it must be a pokemon. Then I saw some words etched onto the slab and the letters were kind of hard to read but I could make out most of what it said: _Here lies the ... of a mother that couldn't make into the world to … ... of its own. The mother, a lonely Froslass ... me to create this coffin for her ... Snorunt child. _Then I saw a name etched beside this epitaph and couldn't really see the first name but I definitely understood the last name as: _UNDERWOOD._ Wilbur. He was that wacky first Gym Leader I faced and defeated. He must've built this coffin for Froslass long ago when her baby died. I immediately felt a wave of sadness rush over me as I watched her fight Rotom. A single tear rolled down my face and I ran up as it struck the wooden coffin and made a single spot of the wood damp.

I ran quickly yelling frantically at the two altercating Ghosts to try and stop them. They both stopped attacking and I was shocked when the Froslass ceased.

"Froslass you need to stop fighting, we're not your enemies." She looked at me with squinty eyes and waved her arm up at the storm that Rotom and I looked up at. Did she think we had caused the storm?

"Listen I know you're scared but you need to know-" I wasn't able to finish because she flung another Shadow Ball at me, then floated off. I saw that she was floating into the distance where Oreburgh City lay. The storm Froslass was talking about was directly over the calm city and lightning was violently striking the city. I couldn't see very far but I did see blizzards were bombarding the buildings as well and people were probably in distress.

Rotom and I regrouped with Drayke and Vance, who was very worn out from moving snow and being attacked by Froslass.

"She hit me with one of her Shadow Balls and I think I would've died if Blaziken hadn't taken her attention off of me." He huffed.

"All my pokemon were defeated by an Ice pokemon." He pounded his fist into the snow. I tried calming him down but Rotom looked frantically at me. He looked in the direction of Oreburgh and I relayed this to Drayke and Vance.

"What do you think she wants with Oreburgh?" Vance looked at me funny.

"I'm not sure but somethings not right here. How can there be a snowstorm in the middle of summer?" Drayke nodded at me when I said this.

"Evelyn's right. That doesn't make sense." Drayke added.

"Well that's not part of our mission. We need to head on over to Floaroma Town and avoid confronting the Society again."

"Vance we have to go and help the people in Oreburgh, this snowstorm is vicious and that Froslass just wandered into town. She's going to cause trouble down there. Please we need to help what if that was your home she was attacking?" I persuaded. He nodded at me and shook his head saying this was a bad idea. The four of us bolted down the same snowy slope where Froslass and Rotom battled for the second time and followed an icy trail that led to the city limits.

When we approached the city, the fences that surrounded it were torn to shreds. Vance kept us from just wandering and we quietly snuck in through the side. When we entered the city I noticed everything was the same from when I had first come to get my Gym badge only everything was desolate. There were no people and everything was coated in a thick layer of ice. Houses were encased in solid ice and people were probably trapped in buildings whose windows and doors were frozen.

When the weather became unbearable we found a pokemon center in town and quickly

entered but Rotom had to force it open with a Discharge attack. Once inside we felt some warmth if you can call it that. The entire pokemon center was covered in ice and the floor a slippery slope. There were some people inside the center but they were icy statues. Nurse Joy was standing at the counter and her whole body was frozen as she was bending over to pick something off the front desk. I peered through her into the back room and saw a shaking body wearing a hat with a red cross sported in the center.

"Hey is someone there?" Drayke called from behind the counter. The shaking body turned out to be a Chancey who was afraid it would be frozen just like the others. The Chancey approached us and was frantically yelling about things I couldn't understand.

I whispered to Rotom. "What did she say."

He whispered back. "Spacemen came in and froze everything. And she saw a Froslass through the ice, float quickly over towards the mine."

I asked the Chancey if she could heal our pokemon and she happily obliged. The machines that this pokemon center used to heal pokemon was frozen solid but Chancey was able to heal all of our pokemon with her Softboiled egg. Even Vance looked energized when he took a bite out of the egg. We all came into the back room where the Chancey was hiding and began resting. I decided there was no time and opened my big mouth to relay what Rotom had translated from the Chancey.

"Guys, Team Galactic invaded this place. They're responsible for this devastating ice storm." I relayed to Vance and Drayke later when everyone got comfortable.

"They must be trying to conquer Oreburgh, severing Hearthome City from the rest of Society Sinnoh." Vance analyzed. "Everyone seems to be either frozen or trapped in their own homes. What about that Froslass?"

"Chancey said she saw Froslass float into the mine." I told Vance, after a quick look at Rotom who urged me to get up and leave.

"Let's go after her." Drayke piped up.

"No, I'll go after her." Vance said, standing up. "My pokemon and I are well enough to take her down once and for all, and I'm not putting you guys in danger." He said all heroic and annoying at the same time.

"Vance, we're a team so cut the hero act, we're coming with you." Drayke said, surprising even me. I agreed with him and Vance scolded Drayke as we all walked out of the center. I waved back at the Chancey who helped us but I could see her hospital hat working underneath the desk to try and defrost her master, Nurse Joy.

We ran through the storm which started to clear and after a few minutes of running I led the boys around another block and soon the Oreburgh Mine came into view. We ran underneath the frozen mine machinery that held coal and hid when we saw Galactic Grunts outside the mine shaft, guarding it.

"Drayke and I will distract them, Evelyn, you go on in. You've had the most experience dealing with Froslass." Vance said.

"Be careful, Evelyn." Drayke said and the boys broke out of hiding. The Galactic grunts attempted to apprehend the boys but their pokemon got in between and a battle ensued between the Bridge and Galactic Grunts. Rotom and slipped through the frozen metal and got into the mine undetected.

Torches were hanging in metal rings bolted into the walls that illuminated the whole mine. As we got deeper I saw Froslass had her back to us. Directly in front of her was a Galactic operative that when they saw me laughed a very maniacal and familiar laugh.

"Wow I thought I'd never see you here, Aria." The lips of Geraldine Swan (A.K.A Galactic Jupiter) were plump and red from before. I thought I'd never see her again but that was short lived.

"Geraldine." I said, the word like dirt. "Why did you bring a snowstorm to this city?"

"Do I need to remind you that we are at war? It's about time the land started switching sides and this place was ripe for the taking. This city and soon all of Sinnoh will be reunited under Galactic Rule. We're not going to let you or anyone else get in our way so back off. And call off your frosty little snowfreak she's pissing me off." Geraldine motioned at Froslass who was returning an icy stare back at Geraldine. "Is this your friend, who is trying to intimidate me? Because I'm not afraid of a little Ghost." With that Froslass launched and Ice Beam directly at Geraldine. She moved to the side as the wall behind her was completely frozen. She threw a pokeball that released a monstrous pokemon I had seen only once before when she fled the Galactic Headquarters in Eterna City.

"Rhyperior, use Earthquake in this filthy rotten mine! Blow it to smithereens!" She roared. The Rhyperior she sent was a giant rock pokemon that shook the entire mine with its powerful rock body. The ground underneath me shook violently and I lost my footing once and fell to the ground. Rotom floated near Froslass and used an Ominous Wind at the Rhyperior. Both of the Ghost pokemon were floating, thus immune to the Ground-type attack. Rhyperior flung rocks at Rotom which kept him at a distance and Froslass wasn't idly standing by. She charged after Rhyperior and fired off Ice Beams. They harmed Rhyperior as far as I could tell but weren't enough to topple the giant rock beast.

"Let's kill this damn Ghost once and for all, use Rock Wrecker!" Geraldine roared. The Rhyperior dug its drill-like arms into the wall of the mine and excavated a giant stone which it flung fiercely at Froslass. She wasn't able to dodge the large and fast rock as it smacked her frail body into the ground, but she wasn't squashed, I saw her limp body roll down into the fissures generated by Rhyperior's previous attack.

"I'm gonna stop whatever you're doing here, Geraldine!" I yelled at her and her pokemon. Rhyperior smirked at Rotom as he was delivering an icy glare. Geraldine placed one hand on her hip and looked at us like we were lost kids.

"Earthquake and let's get out of here, Rhyperior, we have things that need to be done." She grinned and started walking away. Before we could advance any further Rhyperior shook the ground violently once more, this time the floor itself collapsed in on itself and a huge pit started emerging around my feet. My poncho fluttered in the chaotic chamber we were in and I lost my balance, falling into the hole that was the ground.

"Rotom!" I screamed, falling deep into the ground. Rotom didn't see where I fell in and all I could see were the walls of the cave I was in until I hit the ground not too far from the surface. My body rolled down a steep rocky plain and I stopped when I rolled into the side of a wall. It knocked the wind out of me and my whole body was in shock. Pain ran up my entire body and I couldn't feel my legs, my head writhing from being knocked into solid rock. I coughed where I should've been breathing. Little did I know I had fallen right beside the daunting Froslass whose ice body made my throbbing head cold while she laid right above me. We were both sealed into this pit when huge parts of the ground collapsed due to the Rhyperior's colossal attacks. Everything became dark and I slipped away into unconsciousness.


End file.
